Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Wang.
Hi Michelle, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a physicist who is also a singer-songwriter, I found my life filled with passion for these two careers, while how my love for physics developed was an accident. When I was in middle school, I had a huge crush for this boy in my class. He held my hand one time and I was totally in love with him. So I decided to figure out what he likes and win him over by “accidentally” liking the same thing. I asked around his friend group and figured out that he was really into science, especially physics. I then went to the library to check out different physics books so I can be really good at the subject and impress him. As I got to learn more and more about physics, I fell in love with it and ended up forgetting about my crush. Later in life when I was a freshman undergraduate physics student at the University of San Diego, I started doing research in experimental soft matter physics and it was my passion.
During my undergraduate career, I was able to get 2 first-author papers published and travel to national conferences to give talks, and from these experiences, I solidified my desire to pursue a Ph.D. degree in physics. And now I am a third-year Ph.D. student at Emory University, doing the research that I am passionate about. On the other hand, while I work as a research scientist, I am also pursuing a career in singing and songwriting. I have always enjoyed singing and I was classically trained in piano since I was five. I started writing songs when I was nine years old and started to learn guitar and drums as well for fun. So far, I have seven singles and 1 album out available on streaming platforms, and currently, I am working on my second album! I could have not accomplished these without support from my family, friends, professors, and my producers and I am extremely grateful.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey as a scientist has definitely not been a smooth road. One of the struggles I constantly have to deal with is the imposter syndrome, especially as a woman in physics. It’s easy to forget that everybody struggles, so whenever I struggle, I often would spiral and think that I am dumb. On the other hand though, research is not supposed to be easy. The goal of doing research is to explore not-yet-discovered science, so if I knew exactly what I was doing, it wouldn’t be scientific research. On top of the imposter syndrome, I also have ADHD. Sometimes when I can enter the hyperfocus mode, I could get a lot done, but a lot of times I could get distracted easily. I had to find a study system that works best for my brain and stick with it, and it took me a long time to experiment and figure out what works.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a physicist, I do research in experimental soft condensed matter physics. In plain words, I study squishy stuff, particularly hydrogels. Hydrogels are extremely common in life, and you can find them in tissue engineering, contact lenses, food, and even skincare products! While chemical engineers design different hydrogels, it’s us physicists’ goal to understand hydrogel’s response to external stress and their mechanisms. I am proud of also being a musician outside of physics and I think it’s pretty special. Since my music career requires a lot of creativity, I noticed that sometimes the same type of creativity can be used for problem-solving in experimental physics. Looking at my research from different lenses and perspectives can be really helpful and from time to time, I get inspired in unexpected ways.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I moved to Atlanta from San Diego in the middle of the pandemic in July 2020, and I love it here! I love how diverse Atlanta is and you get to meet people coming from a wide range of different backgrounds. You can also enjoy authentic food from literally anywhere in the world and that’s pretty amazing!! As in for what I like least about Atlanta… probably traffic and drivers who don’t use their blinkers.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellee__wang/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QT8CakWSIfxSBgSUbpJqc?si=ebeEG_pGSReb2NEJZZlMkg
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@michellee__wang
