Niki Farnsworth

nikifarnsworth@hotmail.com

"You know what your problem is, it's that you haven't seen enough movies - all of life's riddles are answered in the movies."
~ Steve Martin

Hi everyone. My name is Niki and I am and undergraduate in physics at Brigham Young University.  I was born and raised in Nogales, Arizona and this summer I am working for the Chemistry Department at the University of Arizona.

Me, Family, Friends, Etc.

Like I said, I go to BYU where I am studying physics.  Provo is an interesting place; anyone who has lived there knows what I mean.  I am currently a junior which means I have to tolerate the place for two more years.  BYU is a really awesome school, though.  This summer I'm participating in this program sponsored by the National Science Foundation called Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) that is designed to get undergraduates into research labs in order to give them the experience that they will need to do well in graduate school.  I am working in the Analytical Chemistry Department with an instrument called a Raman Spectrometer.  But more about that later.  I grew up in a little town called Nogales, Arizona which is on the Mexican border.  I have three sisters: Yvette(21), Krystle(17), and Alexis(15). 

 I do have some friends too (I know, surprising).  If you are actually reading all of this jibber-jabber that I'm writing, you can safely assume that you are one of them.  As for hobbies, I enjoy waterskiing, snowskiing, scuba diving, watching movies, reading, eating Mexican food... yeah and other things that I can't think of at the moment.  Anyway, that is my life in two minutes-- I hope you enjoyed it.

My Favorites

Movies: Moulin Rouge, Romeo and Juliet, Memento, Dumb and Dumber.

Bands: Green Day, Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, A Newfound Glory, All-American Rejects, Dashboard Confessional.

Books: Dune, Ender's Game, The Brothers Karamazov, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Grapes of Wrath.

Foods: Enchiladas, Jack in the Box tacos, cheesecake.

Color: Blue (sometimes red)

Things about Nogales that I miss

Hot dogs wrapped in bacon                                                           Doritos with Fries and Nacho Cheese

Carne Asada                                                                                     El Greco

My Family                                                                                          Denny's

Raspados                                                                                          My Nogi Friends

Saliditos in Oranges                                                                        The Lake

Bullets with Chamoy

BYU

Brigham Young University is a private university owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Summer Research

The entire reason I created this website was because it is a requirement of the program I am participating in this summer.  As mentioned previously, I am working with an instrument called a Raman Spectrometer.  A Raman Spectrometer's purpose is identification of materials.  We hit a substance with a powerful laser and the substance gives a unique spectrum of scattered light depending on its composition.  More on the theory of how this works can be read in my research paper on Raman Spectroscopy (also a requirement).  I have been working on several projects while I've been here, both with the actual instrument and with the software used to run the instrument.  We are part of a large effort to create a broad database of mineral spectra.  Because the U of A Mineral Museum has such a large collection of identified minerals, we are working on taking spectra of them and adding to a library that will make Raman spectroscopy incredibly useful in mineral identification in upcoming years.  We have also been writing and modifying programs that will help us to identify each mineral more fully.

You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.
~ Zig Ziglar