Seminars
Seminars occur on Wednesdays from 12:00-1:00 PM Pacific in ISB 130 with a hybrid option over Zoom unless otherwise posted. To join the mailing list, please contact Prof. Christopher Smallwood at christopher.smallwood@sjsu.edu with the words "Seminars and Events" included in the subject heading.
This Week
"How I Got Here": SJSU Faculty and alumni share advice on physics and astronomy PhD
programs
Alex Vargas (Emory University), Toby Stuckey (Ohio State), and Tommy Chin (Penn State)
Wednesday, 10/15/2025, 12:00-1:00pm Pacific
Abstract: Do you think you might be interested in applying to graduate school in physics and astronomy, but you aren’t sure what life in those kinds of programs is really like? Or, are you perhaps currently in the process of applying to physics and astronomy PhD programs, but are looking for advice on how to maximize your application’s competitiveness? This week’s seminar can help. Come hear SJSU alumni share advice and perspectives: how to decide if PhD programs are right for you, how to get in, what life as a graduate student in physics or astronomy is like, and what career prospects are with a PhD. SJSU alumni Alex Vargas, Toby Stuckey, and Tommy Chin will speak about what life is like as a PhD student in physics, and about the kinds of things they wish they had known when they were undergraduates looking at these programs from the outside in.
Bio: Alex Vargas graduated from SJSU with a BS in Physics in the spring of 2019, and he graduated from SJSU with an MS in Physics in the fall of 2021, conducting research in theoretical condensed matter physics under the guidance of Dr. Ehsan Khatami. He is currently a fourth-year graduate student pursing a PhD in soft earth geophysics at Emory University. Toby Stuckey graduated from SJSU with an MS in Physics in the spring of 2024, conducting physics education research under the guidance of Dr. Gina Quan. he is currently a first-year student pursuing a PhD in physics education research at The Ohio State University. Tommy Chin graduated from SJSU with a BS in Physics in the spring of 2022, where he conducted research in a variety of topics ranging from experimental optics to high-energy physics under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Smallwood, Liam Stanton, and others. He is currently a fourth-year graduate student pursuing a PhD in high-energy theoretical physics at Penn State.
