Word to the Wise | Dr. Bryan Ramson
by Imani Cabassa-George
Dr. Bryan Ramson is a physicist at Fermilab and a Howard alum. At Fermilab, he studies neutrinos in the long baseline neutrino particle physics experiments, DUNE and NOvA. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Ramson came to Howard after attending a predominantly white high school.
His experiences at HU were transformative. Ramson realized this was in an environment where he could set aside racial considerations and expectations in his interactions with professors and colleagues. For the first time, he was able to focus fully on his scholarly endeavors.
Ramson attributes his success to Howard, where he thrived because professors and colleagues where there to motivate and support him. He sat down with The Sway to reflect on those experiences. The interview has been edited for clarity.
The Sway: Tell us a bit about your career as a physicist and at the Fermilab.
Dr. Bryan Ramson: At Fermilab, I work at the cutting edge of particle physics in the field of neutrino oscillations on NOvA and DUNE. NOvA is a world leader in attempts to measure the properties of neutrinos and ultimately provide explanations about why matter exists in abundance over antimatter. DUNE is its billion-dollar scale successor that will give us a more precise answer to same questions NOvA is asking. I started at Fermilab as a graduate student in 2013 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and continued as a post-doctoral research associate. Eventually, I was promoted to a "tenure-track-like” junior staff scientist, and I was recently appointed as adjunct professor at Michigan State University, the home of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. On NOvA, I work as a group leader that attempts to understand how neutrinos, otherwise known as the “Ghost Particle,” interact with matter. It’s a very difficult problem that often draws on particulars about my background in high-energy nuclear physics.
TS: How did you get into your field? What made you choose this track over other career paths?
BR: I had an interest in fighter jets and Sonic the Hedgehog when I was a child, and decided that I was going to be a pilot, astronaut, scientist, or computer programmer. Unfortunately, I have terrible vision and was not allowed to fly the most advanced fighter jets (at the time, the F-22 was being tested, and the SR-71 had just been retired), and I’m 6’4”, which is a bit too tall to be an astronaut. I got into computer programming fairly early but took a physics course in high school that ignited my passion for the field. I reasoned that if one could hack computers by learning the most about software, hardware, and programming, one could “hack the universe” if one were to learn physics. I had brief detours when I went to Howard as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) paid for my education. Learning about climate change was another deep interest I had, but I got out of climate science after realizing that our understanding of climate change was extremely robust and had been since before my birth. I transitioned into more fundamental physics initially as a way to solve issues surrounding climate change, but since graduate school, I’ve seen that those issues have become more political than anything. On the way toward my current position, I’ve been offered work on Wall Street and in defense contracting, but I often found that the money did not really justify the time spent doing things where I was more interested in my compensation than the work. Once that decision was made, I have been trying to find ways to do interesting experiments since becoming a post-doctoral research associate at Fermilab.
TS: What advice would you have for other graduate students as they pursue similar academic and career goals?
BR: Two major areas of advice: First, I know it sounds cliche and like boomer wisdom, but it really is a good idea to follow your interests/passions. People can normally tell when you’re interested in what you’re doing, and that interest translates into internal self-satisfaction, high productivity, and good job performance. Second,if you want to be successful at anything, the easiest way to do that is to invest meaningful time into it consistently. For me, that meant that in college, I had to set a schedule that revolved around homework and study for my classes, which began at 9 AM and ended at 5 PM during the work week. With just that simple strategy, I found that I was easily able to manage my coursework, and have a fantastic and fulfilling social life. D.C. is a wonderful city with so many interesting people and opportunities, and Howard adds a unique flavor to its portion of the city.
TS: What does a typical day look like at the Fermilab?
BR: That’s the beauty of working at a National Laboratory like Fermilab: there is no typical day. I have so many interests that my day-to-day is solving whatever problems present themselves in the course of doing science. That means one day, I may be drawing upon my technical and analytical skills to sketch a physics problem analytically, then trying to numerically solve it with a test program or simulate it using custom-written simulations. Another day, I may use Fermilab engineers to develop a device to perform a precursory measurement of the problem I simulated the previous day (of course, projects are typically months long in scale). Some days, I may decide to do an exhaustive literature review on a certain particle scattering process or write a proposal for funding a new detector. I travel a lot: last year, I was in Mozambique for the premier of a documentary in which I was featured, and a few months after that, my presence was requested in South Korea to talk about neutrino-nuclear physics. During my first couple of years at Fermilab, I spent about six months in Switzerland commissioning a detector, and took a couple of weeks to work from Paris. This year, I’m taking a bit of a break and encouraging my post-doctoral research associate to take the trips I was invited to attend. We both turned down São Paulo, Brazil, last month (beautiful beaches), but she’ll be heading to Milan, Italy, next week to present some results from an analysis we performed for the NOvA experiment. Even on a reduced schedule, I was invited to teach graduate students this week and am sharing this from a cafe in Newport News, Virginia, outside one of our sister laboratories: Jefferson Laboratory. Next week, I’ll be returning home to teach at Dillard, and I am planning to take part in the National Society of Black Physicists conference, which will be held in Houston in November. I have a lot of fun and truly enjoy the variety, depth, and breadth of my experiences.
TS: How did your time at Howard prepare you for your career and research interests?
BR: The most important way Howard prepared me was to allow me to be bad at things without labeling me as a bad student. It took a lot of trial and error for me to identify my groove in terms of being a productive scientist. Many physicists at predominantly white institutions tend to have less patience for students of color who do not immediately demonstrate that they are the most advanced students in the class. This would be a difficult problem to solve on its own, but with how wealth inequality is tied to race in the United States, and also with how that correlates with educational opportunity, students of color often find themselves at multiple disadvantages in predominantly white institutions through no fault of their own. My mentors and colleagues at Howard were able to recognize my enthusiasm for science, and helped me translate that into a well-structured approach to science and research. As an example, I made a C in my first undergraduate physics course. If I had done that at my graduate institution as an undergraduate, it’s unlikely I would be a physicist today, let alone one at a place like Fermilab or Michigan State. Once I was properly trained, they also helped me navigate the subsequent stages of my education, and advised me on how to handle some negative experiences that might have otherwise ended my career as a scientist.
TS: As Howard alum, what are the best ways to network with others in the field?
BR: The best way to network in my field is to go to conferences, and to be excited about the science. I believe (but have not endeavored to prove) that physicists and mathematicians tend to be more neurodivergent than members of the general public. While this might lead to some initial awkwardness in interaction, I genuinely find that most scientists want to speak to other scientists, especially about their interests, but have trouble overcoming their initial hesitation and nervousness. If you put yourself in a position to interact with as many physicists as possible and then attempt to interact with as many as possible, this would be a very effective form of networking.
TS: Fun Fact: What's your favorite activity to do over the summer?
BR: Fermilab is right outside of Chicago, and Chicago is my second favorite city in the world. I live in the city proper, and it has freshwater beaches which I often frequent, an amazing food culture, a popular music scene, a visible culture of science (i.e., two billion-dollar scale national laboratories, a handful of world-class post-secondary institutions, thriving technology hub, multiple museums, libraries, zoos, a planetarium, and an aquarium) a thriving car culture, a robust and stable Black middle class, and a healthy queer culture. The day parties and nightlife here often remind me of my time at Howard, and there are a lot of amazing places to visit, like the Promontory, the Wild Hare, the Green Mill, Smartbar, and Subterranean. I’ll be attending Pitchfork and Lollapalooza this year and those are always good festivals. If I had to pick just one, it’s less on an activity and more of an event: cruising Lake Shore Drive on the way to Devil Dawgs after a day at the beach and a night out dancing.