Notre Dame alum takes love of math and science to a Ph.D. program in California.
The definition many dictionaries give for "an art" is "skill in performance acquired by experience, study, or observation," and another is "a system of rules or methods of performing particular actions." The aesthetic aspect of "art" is only one component of many definitions. In fact, science and math are sometimes called the true “beautiful arts” by those who know them well.
And one such person who knows them well is Notre Dame alum Andreana Rosnik (’09), who currently is making great “art” out of a burgeoning future in theoretical chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley. Rosnik just finished the second year of a Ph.D. program in physical chemistry at Cal-Berkeley, and she says that her interests in the “arts” of math and science began in high school.
“At Notre Dame, my love for science was rekindled in Mrs. Mulrenin’s chemistry class, which truly was the catalyst for me to consider a career in chemistry,” Rosnik said. “My classes in chemistry, biology and mathematics only kept me yearning for more quantitative approaches to understanding the world around us, and my teachers pushed me to work hard and really dig into the material.”
She said she found herself very well-prepared to begin college in those subjects and the AP curriculum was instrumental in her post-secondary academic success, first at Hope College and now at Cal-Berkeley. Rosnik checked in recently with the Notre Dame Alumni Association to provide an update on what she’s been up to since graduating from NDP. . . >
On Rosnik’s college experience so far and how Notre Dame prepared her for university studies:
I attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where I majored in chemistry and mathematics and minored in Spanish. I would say my college experience was — in a word — busy! I studied a lot and I was involved in several clubs, including the Union of Catholic Students. I conducted scientific research for three years, and to that I devoted much of my time and talent.
At Notre Dame, my love for science was rekindled in Mrs. Mulrenin’s chemistry class. I found myself well-prepared to begin college in these subjects, as I had a strong foundation thanks to Notre Dame’s AP curriculum.
Besides my principal disciplines of study, ND also prepared me in Spanish. Sras. Anderson and Tessada taught Spanish classes quite rigorously and also injected many social and cultural lessons that further intrigued me to practice the language and learn about the people who speak its many forms. I ended up studying a lot of these aspects on my own, and I took Spanish literature courses in college. I even lived in Barcelona for a year on a Fulbright research grant before I began graduate school. That experience was the perfect marriage of my scientific and cultural interests. Needless to say, the effort and interest paid off!
What I keep seeing more and more as I continue my education is that at NDP, we were trained to be writers and readers – and many other people are not. Mrs. Derico and Mrs. Bembas put on quite the program to develop analytical thinking and writing across a broad spectrum of the written word, and I can’t tell you enough how poorly many scientists – and people in general – communicate themselves.
On where she hopes her university experience will take her:
Today I find myself in my second year of a Ph.D. program in physical chemistry at the University of California Berkeley. Upon going to college, I was quite sure I wanted to go to graduate school, with the vague idea of being a professor or a research scientist in the back of my mind. The more mathematical, model-making-oriented research fields interested me, and I wanted to answer deep questions. All of these things meant that I would need a good deal of schooling in order to even begin to delve deeper.
When I left NDP, I wanted to study more biological aspects of chemistry, somehow mixing more mathematics into that path. I quickly lost interest in biochemistry in college due to all of the wet lab work (which was not my forte) and the emphasis on memorization-based studying (which was tiresome). I quickly fell in love with my math classes, though, be it calculus or abstract algebra (yes, algebra gets way more abstract and weird than just having letters instead of numbers). I wanted to look at chemical problems with a keen mathematical lens. This led me into physical chemistry, which, basically, involves applying an array of physics techniques and detail-oriented analysis to the study of chemical systems. I ended up doing theoretical physical chemistry because, well, I liked math, and Dr. Will Polik at Hope College offered a theory project to me, which no one else had decided to work on. So that was how my undergraduate research experience happened. And I loved all of that work, which only confirmed my interest in continuing my studies in graduate school.
I have stayed in theoretical chemistry ever since. I like the idea of developing mathematical models to describe aspects of the natural world, and I wasn’t too great at experimental work in college. It was in Barcelona where I switched fields; I had a year to try something new, so why not, I thought. In college I worked on very detailed quantum mechanical descriptions of small molecules, but in Barcelona in Dr. Carles Curutchet’s (University of Barcelona) group, I used a mixture of quantum mechanics and classical dynamics to study how different aspects of proteins – their vibrational movement and the electronic structure of pigment molecules inside them – are connected. This was applied to proteins related to photosynthetic ones, and I had read a bunch about photosynthesis and wanted to enter such a vast field that is filled with complicated problems.
I decided to attend UC-Berkeley in short because it was a change of pace and because I found the students there to be people I wanted to be like. I wanted to live outside of the Midwest; I wanted to live in a different kind of city; I wanted to work in yet a different branch of theory. I remembered the graduate students being very articulate in topics more than just on their immediate projects, and I’ve always respected people who are well-versed in more than one thing – so I wanted to be that.
Currently, I work at UC-Berkeley in a group with Dr. Phill Geissler on statistical mechanics, a branch of chemistry and physics devoted to understanding how a small-scale phenomenon can lead to much larger scale phenomena, to the point where statistics need to be invoked. Also, I’m still enamored with photosynthesis, as it truly is a puzzling phenomenon. Plants are way “smarter” than you’d think! Though now I want to see how molecular interactions can impact an even larger spatial scale, on the order of nanometers or micrometers instead of picometers. And with that I find myself trying to understand how large molecules like proteins order themselves on moving surfaces, and how stacks of these moving surfaces end up having similar patterns when they are in close proximity to each other.
I have three more years left, and I don’t yet have a good idea of what I’d like to do once I have my Ph.D. Hopefully, if you ask for another update in three to five years, I’ll have an answer – and a job!
On major influences and strengths that have been instrumental in getting Rosnik to where she is today:
The drive to discover the mechanics governing natural processes – or processes in general – has driven me to where I am today. I like learning new things, especially when they involve understanding how things work and how to interpret the many stimuli surrounding us at any given moment. I think that by using a combination of many mathematical and physical techniques, we can map out how much of the natural world works.
I’d say my strengths are that I naturally think analytically and act pragmatically, and I have great attention to detail. I also have sometimes too much curiosity for my own good. In terms of skills, I’ve taken a breadth of math and chemistry classes, picking up the extra physics, biology and statistics on the job; I’ve learned a bit of programming here and there; I’ve dabbled in several branches of theory, so I can see problems from a few different perspectives. I very much feel like a Jill of all trades, mistress of none, but somehow I can piece things together.
On favorite memories or teachers from Notre Dame Prep:
My favorite memories would probably include a smattering of quips from Mr. Osiecki and Mr. McCaskey’s classes, especially when the two would talk across the hallways. But I’m not going to pick favorites with teachers.
I’m not really a nostalgic person, so I generally don’t miss much about any one place. You could say that that translates to me living in the present, which is partially true. But perhaps the one thing I terribly miss about Notre Dame is uniforms, because some days it’s easier to write code than to pick out an outfit.
On the importance of supporting her high school alma mater:
I think it’s important to contribute in some way or another to one’s high school because that’s where many of us develop interests that will carry us through the rest of our lives. If we can support student education and activities at the high school stage, students can more fully explore their options while they are only just starting to think about having options for the future. If we set good examples for them, mentor them, and form a community around them, we can help direct them to more positive, fulfilling directions.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." The Marist Fathers and Brothers sponsor NDPMA's Catholic identity and manages its educational program. Notre Dame is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.