Many St. Lawrence students conduct research or travel abroad during their summer breaks; Alex Fisher ’10 did both. “To live in another country for the summer and conduct research on a topic that I’m dedicated to is an experience that I would not trade for anything,” Alex explains.  “I’d always considered going abroad while at St. Lawrence, and now my studies are helping me do that.”

A physics and math double major, who hails from Fulton, NY, the Bodley High School graduate is in Palaiseau, France, working at the Labroratoire d’Optique et Biosciences (LOB) through the  Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program hosted through the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and funded by the National Science Foundation.  His research project is “Acquiring a Three-Dimensional Spatial Beam Profile of Terahertz Radiation,” but he commonly refers to it as “Terahertz in the City of Light.”

“I applied for the program not knowing what project I would be placed on, but knowing it would have something to do with optics,” he says.  Alex believes his background in near-field scanning optical microscopy gained at North Carolina State University during the summer of 2008 played a role in his getting the chance to participate in this opportunity.

A teaching assistant in several departments and a member of numerous academic honoraries, Alex’s also excels on St. Lawrence’s nationally-ranked men’s cross country team. “I came to St. Lawrence with the goal of becoming a better runner,” he says, “but I’ve changed into someone with many goals. I’ve changed from someone with little experience with cultures other than my own to someone with some exposure to the rest of the world.  St. Lawrence has helped me determine a path in my life.”