Thomas Varnish loves his hobbies ' knitting, baking, pottery ' it's a long list. His latest interest is analog film photography. A picture with his mother and another with his boyfriend are just a few of Varnish's favorites. 'These moments of human connection are the ones I like,' he says. Varnish's love of capturing a fleeting moment on film translates to his research when he conducts laser interferometry on plasmas using off-the-shelf cameras. At the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, the third-year doctoral student studies various facets of astrophysically relevant fundamental plasma physics under the supervision of Professor Jack Hare. Growing up in Warwickshire, England, Varnish fell in love with lab experiments as a middle-schooler after joining the science club. He remembers graduating from the classic egg-drop experiment to tracking the trajectory of a catapult, and eventually building his own model electromagnetic launch system. It was a set of electromagnets...
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