Student Spotlight: Jonathan Palmer
By Ruth Barrera
Jonathan Palmer is a first-year graduate student originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, where he lived for eighteen years until he moved to Raleigh. Jon continued to North Carolina State University for his undergraduate degree and decided to pursue his graduate studies at Northwestern with his sister, Caitlin Willett.
What has been your favorite Chemistry class?
In general, I enjoy courses that involve a lot of quantum mechanics and math. So basically, I’ve loved all the quantum chemistry classes I’ve taken! I’m particularly enjoying the quantum class I’m currently taking taught by Dr. Hersam through the materials science department, mainly because it’s a new perspective on quantum mechanical topics that I haven’t been exposed to before.
Do you and your sister, Caitiln Willett, share another similar interest aside from Chemistry?
My sister and I don't share a lot of similar interests, but we do both enjoy exercising when we're not doing chemistry. My sister likes going to the gym or on runs, while I like to go kayaking and rock climbing.
How did you become interested in your research?
My current research falls under the general category of quantum information science (QIS), which I became interested in through my undergraduate research in spectroscopy and molecular photophysics. My undergraduate research was more focused on the application of these topics to solar energy harvesting and conversion but reading through the literature I always came across applications to QIS. As I mentioned, I’ve always really loved math and quantum mechanics, so branching off in this direction felt natural to me. Turns out I absolutely love QIS and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!
Do you and Caitlin collaborate in your research?
Since our research interests are vastly different, a chance to collaborate has never come up. I don’t imagine this will change, but it’s definitely an interesting possibility for the future!
Is there a professor that has made an impact on your academic career?
My undergraduate research advisor, Professor Phil Castellano, has had the biggest impact on my academic career so far. He allowed me to join his lab at NC State as a Freshman and I owe a lot of my growth as a scientist to the supportive environment he created in his research group. Working in his group initially sparked my interest in spectroscopy and photophysics. I now apply much of what I learned working in these areas in the Castellano group to pursuing research in quantum information at Northwestern.
What has been the highlight of your academic career thus far?
The people I’ve been able to work with in my research to tackle really challenging problems in chemistry have certainly been the highlight of my academic career. I find working as part of a team very fulfilling and it brings together a lot of unique ideas that I wouldn’t be able to come up with by myself. I’m excited to have the opportunity to continue doing this at Northwestern as a graduate student.
Now that classes are on campus, what are you most looking forward to this year?
I’m mostly looking forward to spending time with the other graduate students in my cohort now that classes are in person. The worst part about being a student during a pandemic was not being able see my friends as often and work through classes together.
In retrospect, is there a positive you’ve seen or experienced from this pandemic?
Personally, the pandemic has actually provided me a lot of extra time to reflect on the goals I have as a chemist and what I wish to accomplish. Although the pandemic was disruptive to most other aspects of my life and took away a lot of opportunities, I was at least able to spend some of that time thinking about something meaningful.
Where do you hope to be in your career in the next 10 years?
I’m interested in continuing in academia once I finish graduate school. I wish to become a post-doc for a few years, then hopefully move on to be a professor at an R1 university. I want to continue research in quantum information, and I’m excited about the possibility of mentoring graduate and undergraduate students who enjoy chemistry as much as I do!