Fulbright Scholarship Sends August Muller '23 to Explore Gravitational Waves in Germany

When she heads to Germany in September, August Muller ’23 will be pulled there by two separate, but equally powerful, forces: interstellar gravitational waves and her keen interest in the German language.

Muller, who graduated last year as a physics major and a German minor, will join an international, multidisciplinary team of scientists led by Dr. Alessandra Buonanno at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam. There, she’ll contribute to our knowledge of black holes and help develop tests that reach beyond Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity to explore new gravitational hypotheses.

“A number of alternative theories of gravity have been created in an attempt to describe what may go on in, or very close to, a black hole, beyond the expectations from general relativity,” Muller explains. “Proof of physics beyond general relativity would be a revolutionary advancement, answering questions from particle physics to astronomy.”

Muller is no stranger to conducting research in Europe. In the summer of 2022, through a National Science Foundation Experience for Undergraduates (REU), she participated in a summer internship at the European Organization for Nuclear Research — better known as CERN — where physicists and engineers are “probing the fundamental structure of the universe.” CERN is most famous for housing the largest particle accelerator ever built, hurling protons and ions at the speed of light along a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets.

An earlier REU, this time at the University of Washington Bothell with Associate Professor Joey Shapiro Key, introduced Muller to the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a European Space Agency Mission that, when launched sometime in the 2030s, is expected to detect gravitational waves that are not measurable by current observatories. For her senior thesis, Muller helped to develop an analysis pipeline to use LISA’s data to identify waves from yet-undetected sources. At Haverford, her interest in astrophysics and astronomy was further kindled by Andrea Lommen and Karen Masters, both professors of physics and astronomy.

“It really was Haverford that pulled me from the pure physics side of the field to astrophysics and astronomy, specifically,” Muller says. “Gravitational waves are a really unique problem that sits between physics, general relativity, and astronomy, which is really exciting. Plus, studying things in spaces is a really great job to have on a day-to-day basis.”

Before arriving at the College, Muller, who hails from Salt Lake City, was an international baccalaureate high school student, and German was her language of choice for her program. She has German heritage – a great-grandfather immigrated to the U.S. – but wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue studying the language through college. A positive experience in the Bi-Co program rekindled her interest and ultimately inspired her to pursue this Fulbright opportunity.

“I’m very interested in getting practice out of the language and cultural knowledge that I built during my time in college as a German minor. Plus Europe, particularly Germany, puts a lot of money and resources into their science,” Muller says. “With gravitational waves being such a new field, a lot of the people I have met care deeply about building the discipline in a way that is very inclusive. It’s really cool to be a part of that.”

Muller is one of four Fords to be accepted into the prestigious Fulbright program for the 2024-2025 academic year. Learn more about their plans.

More information on the Fulbright U.S. Student program is available online at us.fulbrightonline.org. Applications for the 2025-2026 grant cycle are now open, with the application deadline for Haverford students and alums on September 3, 2024. Those interested in applying should contact Director of Fellowships jchan2 [at] haverford.edu (Jason Chan) to learn more.