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AROUND THE QUADS
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
AROUND THE QUADS
With the goal of one day
shedding light on some
grand questions —
“Why is the universe
expanding What is the 96 percent of
matter and energy we can’t see right
now” — Bryan Terrazas ’13 has taken
an ambitious approach to his undergraduate
work in astrophysics.
Terrazas, a John Jay Scholar, spent
summer 2011 at the renowned European
Organization for Nuclear Research
(CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, which
aims to understand the workings of the
universe through particle physics. Funded
by a Columbia Undergraduate Scholars
Program Summer Enhancement Fellowship,
Terrazas plotted data resulting
from the incredibly high-energy proton
collisions within the Large Hadron Collider,
the world’s most powerful particle
accelerator. He then compared the results
against how current theories state
subatomic particles should interact. The
aim: to find discrepancies that would
signal the existence of previously undetected
particles or forces.
Terrazas, who stayed in an apartment
in the town of Saint-Genis-Pouilly in
France and rode a bike across the border
daily to CERN’s facilities, relishes having
been part of that groundbreaking experiment,
known as ATLAS. “It was amazing
to feel the need, the urgency, the
drive throughout everything that
I was doing at CERN,” he says.
At CERN, Terrazas also realized
that he prefers astronomy
to pure physics. And so, last
summer, he spent two months at
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics in Cambridge,
Mass., where he created computerized
models to simulate the
evolution of radio lobes — perpendicular
plumes of matter that
rise from black holes at the center
of galaxies and are believed to
heat the atmospheres around
them. The project was funded
by the National Science Foundation’s
Research Experiences for
Undergraduates program, which
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Bryan Terrazas ’13 Pursues Fascination with the Cosmos
B y Nat h a l i e A l o n s o ’08
covered Terrazas’ expenses. “It was a
very difficult project,” Terrazas says.
“My adviser, astronomer Paul Nulsen,
was amazing. He gave me a lot of
tough things to do, which I had worked
with before, but not to that extent.”
Just prior to leaving for Cambridge,
Terrazas spent a week living at the MDM
Observatory on Kitt Peak in Arizona,
which is partly owned and operated by
Columbia. He slept by day and spent
nights learning how to use telescopes
to observe changes in the brightness of
cataclysmic variables — binary stars in
which a dense white dwarf star tears
matter from a normal star. Cataclysmic
variables, Terrazas explains, allow
astronomers to study the relationships
between different types of stars.
Through his undergraduate work,
Terrazas has narrowed his interests to
extragalactic astronomy, which studies
phenomena outside the Milky
Way Galaxy. For his senior thesis, he
is working with Associate Professor
of Astronomy Greg Bryan to update
models of how the universe’s first stars
came into being. “As Bryan learns,
he is clearly trying to put all of this
information into some sort of coherent
structure; he’s trying to piece together a
big picture,” says Bryan. “Like the best
scientists, he is forming models in his
Bryan Terrazas ’13, shown here at the Rutherford Observatory
atop Pupin Hall, has spent his undergraduate years
sampling various aspects of astrophysics.
PHOTO: KRISTEN STRYKER
head and using these models to make
predictions about new situations.”
Born in Los Angeles to Bolivian
immigrants, Terrazas was 3 when his
family moved to northern Virginia.
He traces his love of astronomy to a
fourth-grade field trip to the local planetarium,
and now tries to instill that
same sense of awe in others. One night
a month, through the Harlem Sidewalk
Astronomy project, Terrazas and fellow
students from the astrophysics department
set up telescopes in Federal Plaza
in Harlem and invite passersby to take
a look at planets and other celestial
bodies. “It’s not like they are going to
an event where they are expecting to
learn about science. I have to be able
to engage them just like that,” Terrazas
says. “It’s interesting to try to explain
the concept as well as create wonder
and get them enthralled with the subject.
It’s a challenge, but it’s really fun.”
Given his scientific bent, few would
guess that Terrazas also is an accomplished
clarinetist. He began playing
at 10 and, through Columbia’s music
department, takes private lessons at
The Metropolitan Opera. He also performs
with the Columbia University
Orchestra.
At press time, Terrazas was awaiting
responses from several research fellowships
and graduate programs. As
he considers his next move, he
finds himself motivated not by
what he has learned thus far but
by the many questions in his field
that remain unanswered.
“It’s really not about being
perfect at calculating what is
already known,” Terrazas says.
“It’s about pushing the boundaries
of what you know. That’s really
what research has taught me.
Every single project that I’ve been
a part of has incorporated this.”
Nathalie Alonso ’08, from Queens,
is a freelance journalist and an editorial
producer for LasMayores.com,
Major League Baseball’s official
Spanish language website.
IN MEMORIAM
n Karl-Ludwig Selig, professor emeritus
of Spanish and Portuguese and a Cervantes
scholar, died on December 1, 2012,
on the Upper West Side. He was 86.
Selig is regarded as one of the world’s
foremost experts on Cervantes’ Don Quixote.
Known for his course “The Novella:
from Boccaccio to Cervantes,” Selig passionately
made the case that the modern
novel is dependent on Cervantes’ picaresque
work. He also taught “Masterpieces
of Western Literature and Philosophy
II,” also known as “Super Lit Hum.”
Those who took Selig’s class “could
never get the books, or the professor, out
of [their] mind. Fifty years later, people
can recite his lectures,” said Christopher
Allegaert ’78 in a recent Spectator article.
Selig was born into a Jewish family in
Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1926. He and his
parents fled to the United Kingdom in
1939, before the start of WWII, relocating
to Erie, Pa. Selig earned a B.A. from Ohio
State, where he also swam; an M.A. from
Ohio State; and a Ph.D. from the University
of Texas, where he later taught. He received
his United States citizenship in 1948
and taught at the University of Minnesota,
Johns Hopkins, North Carolina and Cornell
before joining Columbia in 1966. Selig
was presented Columbia’s Mark Van
Doren Award for Teaching in 1974. After
leaving Columbia in 1989, he taught at the
University of the South (Sewanee) and at
the University of Greifswald, Germany.
Selig wrote or co-authored 45 books,
many of which have been translated into
multiple languages.
Selig always was willing and excited to
speak with his students, and dozens attended
his 86th birthday celebration last August.
Harper’s Magazine Publisher John Mac-
Arthur ’78 referenced Selig last year in
his Class Day address: “He wanted you
Have You Moved
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to embrace the text, to read it
with rigor, but also with pleasure.
However, like all of my
best professors, Selig insisted
that reading text was a fundamentally
serious endeavor,
that text must be respected.”
“He was resolved to fight
as only a devotee of Don Quixote
could,” said another former
student, Dennis Klainberg
’84, “by staying optimistic,
fighting to live another day
and keeping in close touch
with all his friends, colleagues and especially,
his beloved students.”
Selig had an appreciation for the rowing
team, which named two
sculls after him. A remembrance
will be held for him
this spring at the Columbia
Class of 1929 Boathouse.
Karl Daum ’15
Former students may share
memories of Selig on the “Fans
of Karl-Ludwig Selig” group
on Facebook. Several of Selig’s
former students have taken up
a collection for his caretaker,
Gilbert Adiaba. For information
on how to donate, contact Dennis Klainberg
’84 (dennis@berklay.com) or Ted Allegaert ’87
(tallegaert@hotmail.com).
Dean’s Scholarship Reception 2013
Nearly 500 named scholarship donors
and student recipients filled Roone
Arledge Auditorium on February 7 at
the annual Dean’s Scholarship Reception.
Each year, nearly 1,200 Columbia College
students receive named
scholarships as part
of their financial aid
package, and this event
allows the students and
donors to meet one
another and share their
College experiences.
Dean James J. Valentini
welcomed attendees,
saying, “We have, by
all measures, the most
diverse college among
selective schools in the
country. Financial aid is a tool that allows us
to create the Columbia that we have.”
The evening’s donor speaker, James T.
Brett ’84, ’90 Business, echoed the sentiment:
“We are all here today because we
The reception allows scholarship
recipients and their donors to meet.
PHOTO: CHRIS BALMER ’07
are invested in the future of Columbia College,”
he said. “We want to remain competitive,
and named scholarships allow us to
do so.”
Brandon Lewis ’13 spoke on behalf of the
scholarship recipients.
“What can I possibly
say to thank you for this
opportunity” he said,
addressing the donors
in the room. “The day
I received my letter of
acceptance was a happy
one but I wasn’t truly
elated until I received
the financial aid package
that allowed it to
become a reality.”
To view a video from the reception as well
as the 2012–13 Scholarship Directory, go to
college.columbia.edu/cct. To view photos
from the reception, go to facebook.com/
ColumbiaCollege1754/photos_albums.
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SPRING 2013
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SPRING 2013
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