Maharishi student lands summer gig studying the beginning of universe

Olivia Seidel, Maharishi International University physics major, was one of just 16 Americans selected for the University of Michigan's nine-week summer student program at CERN, the world's top nuclear research lab in Geneva, Switzerland.

She was selected out of 180 applicants for the positions and looking forward to traveling to Switzerland for her studies.

And then the pandemic struck – and the lockdown – and overseas travel was out of the question.

'Even with the pandemic and all, I had no doubt things would work out,” Seidel said.

In fact, as a result of the pandemic, and with her credentials as a CERN summer student, Seidel landed an even better study situation than would have been available to her in Switzerland.

One of the action principles that students at Maharishi International University explore is 'Seek the highest first.”

According to Seidel, 'I decided to act on this principle and was able to make contact with Jack Burns, professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and director and principal investigator of the NASA-funded Network for Exploration and Space Science.'

Burns has longstanding ties with NASA and served on the NASA Advisory Council from 2008-2010.

After an exchange of emails, Burns decided that Seidel would be a perfect fit for a summer intern position with his team, which is studying background micro-radiation left over from the few seconds after the origin of the universe.

'I am very happy to have won this summer study position,” Seidel said, 'not only for the opportunity it will provide me to get a deeper insight into my chosen field of physics. I am also excited to serve as a role model for all students, but particularly women, who have a desire to pursue a career in STEM [Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics].”

She said things worked out far better than she had planned with the pandemic travel ban leading to Burns.

'I could not have done this in Switzerland,” Seidel said. 'This shows me that by maintaining a positive attitude and moving forward in the face of adversity all sorts of great things happened.”

She added that those thing would not have happened had she 'just collapsed when it was announced that the CERN trip was off.”

According to Myron Campbell, professor of physics, who administers the CERN/University of Michigan program.

'About 180 students applied to this program,” he said. 'Because of the COVID pandemic, we had to switch the program from on-location at CERN to be online. Three students decided not to continue under these conditions, so Olivia was one of 13 students who did continue.”

Campbell said he was impressed with Seidel's Olivia's dedication and active participation in the program.

'She demonstrated initiative by finding a project and mentor for the program through the University of Colorado,” he said.

Seidel studies in the morning, connected via Zoom with CERN mentors in Switzerland. Her afternoons are devoted to on-site efforts to sift through mountains of data, searching for patterns that will help scientists in their search to uncover the secrets of the universe.