Jared Spauding

Region: Capital
Program Institution: SUNY Albany

Education

College/University: SUNY Albany
Major/Minor: B.S. in Physics, B.A. in Mathematics
Graduation Date: May 2013

Advanced Degrees/Professional Licenses: Ph.D in Physics

Significant Professional or Academic Accomplishments: Jared Spaulding started his studies in Physics at SUNY Albany in Fall 2009. He joined the SUNY Albany CSTEP later that year at the suggestion of his EOP advisor. He was eventually accepted into their 2010 University at Albany Summer Research Program where he did bioinformatics research on optimizing protein sequence alignments at the University at Albany Cancer Research Center.

During his timeat the University he was invited to join the Presidential Honors Society and he also became the resident “physics expert” for CSTEP. He slowly honed his teaching skills by working one-on-one with numerous students of various majors and organizing 4+ hour review sessions with up to 40 students to help prepare them for their midterms and finals. This has earned him the nickname, “The Professor.”

In Fall 2011, he also started tutoring high school students in various math and science classes for the SUNY Albany STEP. He first started off during the Saturday programs and eventually, helped out at the afterschool program a couple of days a week as well.

In Summer 2012, he was accepted in the Wadsworth Center Summer Research Program where he did biophysics research on the structure and dynamics of microtubules in a class of Protists called Foraminifera. He continued this research through his final year of undergraduate studies.

In the last year of his undergraduate career, he became the president of the UAlbany Society of Physics Students. He rejuvenated the group by hosting regular meetings and with speakers from inside the SUNY Albany Physics Department, the nearby College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, and the Wadsworth Center.

He graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2013 with a B.S. degree in Physics and a B.A. degree in Mathematics. He was also one of three students in his graduating class to be inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma, the National Physics Honors Society.

Jared spent his summer after graduation researching frequency dynamics and exploring the effects of semiconductor laser orthogonal re-injection at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba in João Pessoa, Brazil through the SUNY Oswego Global Laboratory.

Currently, Jared is in the first year of his PhD program in Physics at University at Albany. And, even though he teaches two first year physics labs and is usually busy with homework, he still likes to give back to the CSTEP office andhelp out the occasional stressed undergrad trying to make sense of their physics homework.