Sophia C
- Research Program Mentor
MA candidate at Peking University
Expertise
physics (particle physics, biophysics), history (modern Chinese history, Soviet history, Cold War history, environmental history, intellectual history)
Bio
Sophia graduated in 2024 from Harvard, where her odd combination of interests led to a BA in History and Physics (double major). Curiosity, enthusiasm, and good luck has brought her a very wide range of research experience over the last several years: Space Physics at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, applied biophysics at the Air Force Research Lab, biochemistry at Harvard Medical School, Holocaust History at a museum in Latvia (eastern Europe), and in two History-focused areas of Harvard: The History Department and the interdisciplinary Initiative for Science of the Human Past. Her research centers on twentieth-century history (Soviet, Chinese, international) and on physics applications to bioscience. These days, she is living in China to gain background for future studies in Chinese history. She is a big fan of playing her trumpet, rock-climbing, and distance-running, though she often gets lost. She also likes reading, watching old movies, writing funny poems, and Zoom-ing with her geriatric dog by Zoom.Project ideas
Influences of Solar Wind Fluctuations on the Character of the Earth's Magnetic Field
At any given moment, a stream of charged particles hurtles towards Earth and collides with the earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere), either reflecting outwards or entering Earth's ionosphere. How might changes in the sun's behavior over time (e.g., sun spots, solar flares) affect the speed and intensity of the solar wind and, in turn, the way the magnetosphere responds? Can we characterize patterns of magnetospheric response to solar wind patterns? This project would start with a basic literature review of the solar wind, Earth's magnetosphere, and solar-magnetospheric interactions. It would hone in on one existing open question about those interactions, then use a combination of published data and journal articles from different fields to examine the nature of that interaction. As in any project, part of the process would be finding the data and adjusting the question based on what data is available. The question and the focus will change over time, based on findings, and that is normal, too. In the end, this project will contribute to our understanding of solar physics, earth's magnetic properties, and connections between the earth and the solar system to which it belongs.
Causes of Crohn's Disease: Finding Clues in Linked Systemic Dysfunctions
Between 6 and 8 million people globally are affected by Crohn's Disease, a chronic condition characterized by prominent gastrointestinal symptoms like abdominal pain/cramps, diarrhea, and poor appetite. Other symptoms can include fever, fatigue, and mouth ulcers. Causes of this condition, which can be debilitating for patients, remain poorly understood, and there is no cure. However, the condition often appears paired with other systemic autoimmune dysfunctions, such as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Literature on the reasons for their pairings and their relationship to a central cause remains sparse. This project would investigate those pairings by reading literature on Crohn's, systemic diseases with which it has been associated, autoimmune dysfunction, and dysautonomia (a related kind of central nervous system dysfunction implicated in POTS). That literature often takes these conditions separately; this project would take them together to look for links between them. It would add to our understanding both of Crohn's and of autoimmune diseases more broadly. This is a budding area of research in the medical community (cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and otherwise), and background gained from this project would prepare a student well for college and post-college research in a related field.
African Students in Civil Rights/Cold War America, 1950s-1960s
In the 1950s-1960s, a wave of nationalist revolutions swept across the Global South, including Africa. Newly independent states like Ghana and Algeria emerged into a Cold War context in which the U.S. and the Soviet Union vied for influence over states and societies around the world, not least in nascent countries aiming to develop quickly, potentially through foreign aid. This interest in influence combined with other factors to push the U.S. government to invite--and fund--students from Africa to study in the U.S. By the early 1960s, U.S. universities welcomed growing numbers of students. Our project would use a mix of primary and secondary sources to explore this development: How did the origin countries and backgrounds of these students evolve over the 1960s? What factors in the domestic contexts of those countries/the U.S. and in the Cold War contributed to that evolution? How did these students integrate into U.S. society on arrival? (How did they react to the Civil Rights movement? How did its participants react to them?) How did they apply their experiences upon return home? (Did their professional goals and concept of their country's future evolve at all in consequence of their time in U.S. universities?) The plan would be to use primary sources to understand on-the-ground experiences, e.g., news accounts in national/regional/school media, memoirs & diaries, etc. We could use either secondary sources (articles written by other people) or primary sources (e.g., published state files) to understand the foreign relations sides of these questions. If we wished to take the project in a slightly different direction, we could also use secondary or primary sources to compare with experiences of African students (e.g., from Algeria) in the Soviet Union around this time. We would contribute to understanding the history of the Cold War, histories of decolonization in Africa, and intersections of domestic & foreign policy in Civil Rights/Cold War America. We would also learn about studying history "from underneath," that is, through the experiences of ordinary people.