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Trip Report 2018 Russell Yang Qi Xun

NUS High School of Maths & Science

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Table of Contents

1) Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3

2) Nobel Festivities .................................................................................................. 4

Nobel Lectures ................................................................................................................ 4

Nobel Reception ............................................................................................................. 6

Nobel Prize Ceremony .................................................................................................... 8

3) SIYSS Seminar .................................................................................................... 11

4) Learning Journeys & Cultural Immersion ....................................................... 13

Visit to Xylem Research Facility ................................................................................... 13

International & Midsummer Dinner ............................................................................ 13

Trip to Skansen & Gamla Stan..................................................................................... 15

6) Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... 17

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1) Introduction SIYSS this year was held from the 4th-11th of December. This week has been the most unforgettable and mesmerizing experience I have ever had in my life. Every minute of the schedule was well thought of. The organizing committee had put in a monumental amount of effort in planning the schedule. Every event that I participated in was excellently planned and executed to a high standard – reflective of the committee’s work ethic. However, not every event will be covered in this report. Instead, I will be discussing in detail the events that had the greatest influence on me and reflecting upon them. Sections of the report will be ordered by their importance to me whilst subsections remain chronological. I hope that this report will benefit and inspire future participants and aptly showcase the highlights that this magical week has had on me.

The 25 SIYSS participants of 2018

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2) Nobel Festivities

Nobel Lectures During the trip, we attended the Nobel Lectures in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. The Economics lecture was made optional and was not attended by me. It should also be noted that the Literature prize was not awarded this year. The Nobel Lecture in Medicine was held at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden’s best medical school and medical research facility). The Physics, Chemistry and Economics lectures were held at Stockholm University. I am deeply passionate about physics; it is no question that the physics lecture was the most influential in my life. The first lecture was delivered by Rene-Jean Essiambre on behalf of the awardee – Arthur Ashkin. Arthur Ashkin was awarded the Nobel Prize “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems” He was not able to be around for the lecture or ceremony due to his old age which was rather unfortunate. However, he left a rather heartwarming video message to the audience. The lecture gave a historical background into optical tweezers, their motivation, their applications and future work. Essiambre stated that the explanation for the effect of optical tweezers came as a happy accident to Arthur Ashkin. Arthur Ashkin then took the “accidental discovery” and furthered it using existing techniques. A succinct qualitative explanation was given into how optical tweezers worked which I thought was absolutely wonderful. A Gaussian laser beam is more intense in the centre than at the edge. Small perturbations to an object held in that beam will cause light to reflect in the direction of the perturbation and by conservation of momentum the object will move back to the centre. In the words of Feynman: If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't really understand it. As a physics student without any understanding in the field, I can safely say I understood his work. The second lecture(s) were given in two parts — the first by Donna Strickland and the second by Gerard Mourou. Interestingly, Donna Strickland was Gerard Mourou’s PhD student. The work which garnered both of them the Nobel Prize was Donna Strickland’s PhD project on “their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”. Donna Strickland introduced her work and gave a historical background which led her to her work. Laser amplifiers break if the input is too high. Donna’s genius was to use a “Newton’s prism” like object to split the light, amplify the constituent components and re-collimate the light back into a single beam. This method is known as “Chirped Pulse Amplification”. Gerard Mourou gave a lecture on the future potential of laser physics. His child-like scientific curiosity at such an old age baffled me. In his words: I (Gerard Mourou) am addicted to higher and higher power lasers. He explained the far-reaching potential of laser physics. Using laser accelerators, one can replace the CERN supercollider using the space of a football pitch. This is a 3-country collaborative project called ELI that he is currently leading.

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Gerard Mourou sharing his dream for laser physics

A simple explanation for optical tweezers

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Nobel Reception Over the course of the Nobel Festivities, we managed to attend the Nobel reception. The Nobel reception was the only opportunity we had to interact with the Nobel laureates in person. Typically, champagne is served with finger food, and it is used as a social platform to interact and mingle. It was held at the Nordic Museum this year which looked very grand from the outside and even more impressive on the inside. Personally, I spoke to Chemistry Laureate Gregory P. Winter. He was very approachable and friendly, and I had a very enjoyable time speaking to him about the future of youth in science in the UK (a topic he feels strongly for). I also spoke to Donna Strickland. She was the same on stage and off-stage, having a bubbly attitude and maintaining her lovable Canadian accent when speaking to us.

SIYSS participants with Professor Donna Strickland during the Nobel Reception

SIYSS participants with Professor Gerard Mourou during the Nobel Reception

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Nobel Prize Ceremony This was the singular highlight of the entire trip. We had the whole day to dress up and prepare for the ceremony. I visited the best barber in Stockholm and enjoyed the most expensive haircut I have ever paid for (300 SEK/50 SGD!) We proceeded with a lovely group photo in the Scandinavian wilderness. Everyone jumped for their coats the moment the photo was completed. That concluded one week of friendships forged during a very memorable trip. We hopped onto our taxis and proceeded to Stockholm Concert Hall. Police surrounded the city square, and road blocks were set up as we approached the front. All of us felt like VIPs going through the roadblocks.

The photo-taking session just before the ceremony

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The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was attended by the Swedish Royal Family. Prizes are also given out by the King of Sweden. The ceremony began with very graceful orchestral music, followed by the prizes themselves. Between every category was a performance put up by the Royal Orchestra of Sweden. Personally, I am not a keen fan of classical music, but that day I heard one of the best pieces of music and culture in my life. Speeches made by the Nobel committee were also impactful and apt for the occasion in relation to current affairs such as climate change. As we exited the concert hall, first snow fell… It was a magical experience, to say the least (It was my first-time seeing snow in real life).

The view from my seat at the Stockholm Concert Hall

Unfortunately, the SIYSS organizing committee could not get tickets for the Nobel banquet. Nonetheless, we attended a similar banquet in the same building as the Nobel banquet. Every part of the banquet organized by the student unions of Stockholm was identical to the actual Nobel banquet – the food, the presentation, the waiters, the menu etc. We sat at the banquet while observing proper etiquette – as if we were at the actual banquet. This happened all while the banquet was live streamed on a TV. Hour-long performances graced the in-betweens of every course. I had to constantly remind myself that it was happening beside us, merely separated by a wall. We were a little bummed out that we could not attend the actual banquet, but the organizers promised us that the one originated by the student union would not disappoint us – I can safely say on hindsight that it didn’t disappoint at all. Tuning into the laureates’ speeches, the one that left the most impact on me was Frances Arnold’s. She started her speech off with a joke. In short, it goes like this: How do the physicists explain the apple that dropped on Newton. The apple and Earth are attracted by a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the squares of their

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distances. How does an evolutionary biologist explain it? Apples used to drop in all directions, but only apples that fell to The Earth could germinate and after many generations only apple trees that fell to the ground survived. She concluded with a toast to evolution – that it may be applied correctly and appropriately. It showed me that science is often misinterpreted by the general public for the purposes of entertainment. However, as scientists, our main role is to steer and guide the public to the truth and be seekers of the truth. Only we can apply science correctly for the public.

The appetizer served during our student organized banquet

The most exciting and exhilarating part of the night was the Nobel nightcap. The Nobel Nightcap is a student-organized party. It was held at the Stockholm School of Economics this year. The entire university campus was transformed into a huge club. There were many food and drinks served free throughout the night. Everyone, even the Laureates, danced and partied throughout the night. I had the honour of dancing in the same room as Professor Gregory P. Winter with ABBA playing live in the background.

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3) SIYSS Seminar The SIYSS Seminar is a showcase of the works of the participants of SIYSS to approximately 2000 Swedish high school students. This year it was held at Cirkus, a concert hall in Stockholm that seats 400 comfortably. I presented my project via a poster to many interested high school students. Two groups of students interviewed me with a camera; it was part of their school project to find out about the projects of SIYSS participants.

A photo taken during the five-minute presentation

Every participant also had to give a five-minute, on-stage presentation. Pre-seminar, it was difficult to condense the difficult topic of Condensed Matter Physics and Topological Mechanics into a five-minute presentation that would be insightful and meaningful to the students. But through extensive email correspondence with the organizers, I managed to do so – much to both of our delights. During the actual talk, one of my slides didn’t flash because it was accidentally deleted. I had to explain the results of my project without any visual aids. I have to admit that it was terrifying, but I managed to keep calm and explain my project in a way that did it justice. I was glad that the students managed to understand it; many of them even asked questions during the Q&A section.

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Explaining my project to Swedish high school students

The seminar organizer was proud of every single one of us for making the seminar a great success. I also got to find out about other participants’ projects. They ranged from the study of geological earthquakes to blackholes, to group theory, to drug design… I was thoroughly impressed by the high standards of research that everyone upholds themselves to.

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4) Learning Journeys & Cultural Immersion

Visit to Xylem Research Facility Xylem is a world leader in water pumping and purification technologies. Their research goes into building more efficient pumps that are robust to adverse conditions. This proves to be particularly useful in areas of humanitarian need. In a broader scope, they are an engineering company that seeks to solve the world’s water problems – they deal with the applied aspect of science.

I got to see how engineers optimize pumps for maximum flow and efficiency. Everyone working there had an innate desire to see technology improve and progress. They demonstrated to us how power stations work. In the case of power stations, smaller is better. Being a physics student, I was very impressed with the live demonstration of vortices, eddy currents and turbulent flows.

It was very meaningful to see how science can help the world and solve its problems. Many who are not familiar with the physics community think that physics research is abstract and intangible – dealing with black holes and string theory. However, this trip proved to be that science is very useful and is indeed very much felt in our lives. Sometimes, the things we take for granted are where science is at its most evident.

Left: A researcher at Xylem explaining miniaturization of water stations

Right: A photo of the workshop at Xylem research labs

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International & Midsummer Dinner The international dinner was a time for us to get to know about the cultures of the various participants. Every participant was given one minute to share something interesting about their country. The dinner exposed me to the varying cultures represented at SIYSS. I gave a short presentation about Singapore and attempted to order coffee of 10+ varieties. In the end, I told them coffee in Singapore is typically sold in a bag and they were shocked – as expected. It was also the only time my Singaporean accent and singlish could be used full force. Other participants also shared interesting things. A Hungarian girl distributed Rubik’s cubes to everyone while my Korean counterpart let everyone try traditional sweets. The organizers also prepared a comforting Swedish meal that consisted of Lax (smoked salmon) and Roast beef.

The only culture not presented was the Swedish culture. However, we would learn a lot about it in the next meal.

The meal during the international dinner

Midsummer is a Swedish holiday that takes place in the middle of summer (as the name suggests). Traditionally, it is a time for families to get out of the city and into the country side. Families pick flowers, play traditional games, dance over a BBQ. The organizers exposed us to the games. My favorite was seeing who could lower a pen tied around your waist into a bottle the fastest. After dinner, we learnt how to dance a traditional Swedish frog dance. We also practiced the Waltz dance in preparation for the Nobel Prize ceremony.

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Trip to Skansen & Gamla Stan Being tourist areas, our trips to Skansen and Gamla Stan were more “touristy” in nature. At Skansen, we had a taste of a traditional Swedish Christmas meal. It was a buffet with an assortment of pickled fish, hams and even Reindeer meat – not things you would find in a typical Singaporean restaurant. Nonetheless, they were delicious to eat! We also roamed the zoo afterwards.

Gamla Stan is a personal favourite of mine. It is the old town of Stockholm; it is filled with old-looking traditional buildings and cobblestone streets. Definitely, a “photogenic” place to visit. It was also nice taking the boat (which is a form of public transport) from there.

Left: A traditional Swedish Christmas meal consisting of pickled fish and reindeer meat

Right: A view of a Christmas market and old buildings at the heart of Gamla Stan

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5) Concluding Remarks The weeks leading up to SIYSS were filled with expectation and anticipation. Post-SIYSS I can say all those expectations were far surpassed. The schedule of the week was packed with exciting activities that motivate me to pursue science in the future. If anything, it reaffirmed my passion for research further.

No doubt, the highlight of the week was the day of the Nobel Prize Ceremony. The Nobel Prize Ceremony is no longer something that I hear about in the news or read in popular science articles. It is now something that I have a deep connection with and that holds a special place in my heart.

SIYSS is very much unlike many science fairs across the globe. Only approximately 20 students get to participate in it every year. All students come from different nations and are in different stages of their scientific careers. The opportunity to interact with participants ranging from university to PhD to postdoctoral students is not something you get to do everyday – and its also not something to be taken lightly. Everyone was able to connect deeply, spurred by a common passion for the sciences.

It has been a privilege to attend SIYSS. I encourage any future participant to treasure this once in a lifetime opportunity. It is also in my greatest hope that SIYSS will continue to inspire a whole generation of young scientists.

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6) Acknowledgements I would like to thank World Scientific Publishing Company (WSPC) for sponsoring this unforgettable experience at the SIYSS at Stockholm. I would also like to thank Imperial College Alumni Association of Singapore (ICAAS) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) for selecting me as the sole representative of Singapore and for helping me with the administrative component of the trip. Credits also go to the organizers of SIYSS for their boundless efforts in organizing a very surreal week. Last, but not least, my project would not have materialized if it weren’t for the continual support of Dr Lee Ching Hua (A*STAR) and NUS High School of Maths and Science for their support, in particular, the Office of Research, Innovation and Enterprise and teacher mentor Mr Poh Boon Hor.

A view of Hammarsby apartments by the riverside.