A Desire to Make Space Travel Faster and Easier is a Motivating Force
Albert Farah '24 switched his major from mechanical engineering to physics and math.
04/16/2024
By Brooke Coupal
Albert Farah has been interested in space since childhood, so he originally enrolled at UMass Lowell as a mechanical engineering major with a goal of pursuing a career in the aerospace industry.
“I wanted to make space travel a lot faster and easier,” he says. However, his interests gravitated toward physics, so he switched his major during his first year of college.
“I realized that I really enjoy theoretical physics,” says Farah, who added a dual degree option in mathematics during his sophomore year.
Farah reached out to theoretical cosmology expert and Physics Assoc. Prof. Nishant Agarwal about potential research opportunities. Agarwal recommended that he take courses in quantum mechanics and mathematical physics before joining his research group—advice Farah was grateful to receive.
“If I had rushed into his research without taking those courses, I would have been discouraged, because I would not understand the work,” Farah says.
Farah eventually joined Agarwal’s research group and got a stipend from the Kennedy College of Sciences to conduct research on the dynamics of quantum field theories. He presented his work at an American Physical Society conference in Minneapolis.
Last summer, Farah got additional funding from the college for a research project on quantum chaos that he had proposed.
“What these experiences have given me is the ability to ask relevant questions independently,” says Farah, who plans to pursue a career in research. “And it was pretty cool to secure funding for my projects through the college.”