Held September 10-11 at the California Institute of Technology, FUTURE will bring together rising junior and senior undergraduates and recent graduates interested in physics graduate study. Participants will take part in presentations, discussion panels, mini-workshops, and informal socials with Caltech faculty and students, with opportunities to learn about graduate school, the application process, and life as a physics graduate student. 

For Mazeeva, the program comes as she considers a significant shift in her academic trajectory.

“I applied to this program because I’m at a genuine decision point in my academic career. As a CS major, I didn’t intend on pursuing physics when I first came to WashU,” Lydia explained. “However, through my research with the QMC group under Professor Piarulli and exploration of qubit platforms under Professor Yang, my original plan has shifted, and I’ve developed a growing interest to pursue a physics PhD now.”

That decision is informed by experiences in both academia and industry. This summer, Mazeeva worked as a software engineer intern at Microsoft, where she built AI agents and gained firsthand experience with the pace and possibilities of industry. 

“Having experienced both research and industry, I can realistically envision myself doing both.”

At FUTURE, Mazeeva plans to examine the questions that remain as she weighs her options, particularly how researchers choose their directions, advisors, and career paths. By learning directly from Caltech faculty and graduate students, she hopes to develop a more grounded understanding of graduate study and the opportunities available in physics research. 

We’re excited to see Lydia take advantage of this opportunity and look forward to all she will learn – and the possibilities she will discover for her future in physics.