Keeping Busy

Valerie Gray, a graduate student at The College of William and Mary and a researcher at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, was chosen this year by American Physical Society members as chair-elect for the APS Forum on Graduate Student Affairs. Submitted photos.

The old adage “If you want something done, give it to a busy person,” could be a theme for Valerie Gray’s life. The College of William and Mary graduate student, and a young researcher at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, was chosen this year by American Physical Society (APS) members as chair-elect for the APS Forum on Graduate Student Affairs (FGSA).

FGSA was created in 2001 to expand graduate students’ involvement in the APS and the scientific community at large and to enhance the ability of APS to meet the needs of graduate students. It also offers support services and encourages participation in activities and decision-making in the physics community.

Gray, born in Baileys Harbor, Wis., grew up a self-described “farm kid,” with two brothers and a slew of cousins who all worked on the family farm. “Cows, chickens, hay…a farm needs manpower,” Gray recalled with a laugh.

In addition to farm chores, Gray made money babysitting, working as a waitress at a pizza place, as a sales clerk in an ice cream shop, and handing out putters to tourists at the local mini-golf enterprise. She also played basketball, softball and ran cross country.

As early as her days in elementary school, Gray knew her only option for going to college would be to secure a scholarship. There was no way her parents, a carpenter and a seamstress, could afford to send any of their children to college. She also knew that she wouldn’t be pursuing a career in liberal arts.

“Me and English? We were like oil and water. History? No way,” she said with a shake of her head. But in math and science she not only excelled, but thrived and found an excitement that drew her in from the very beginning. With her eye on that future scholarship, she hunkered down and sailed through AP biology. She raced through mathematics – skipped 8th grade math – and during her senior year in high school took calculus 1 while teaching herself calculus 2.

She entered St. Norbert College, in De Pere, as a math education major, thinking she would carve out a career as a teacher. While other women her age were reading magazines about hair and makeup, she was reading Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. When her Physics 101 professor, Michael Olson, encouraged her to help in his project developing lab manuals on fuel cells and solar panels for junior high and high school students, she jumped at the chance, and her life was changed forever.

“Once I got into research…I was gone!” she exclaimed.

Throughout Gray’s undergraduate years, her pace never slowed. She worked as a teaching assistant, babysat and worked in the AmeriCorps office. She spent two summers in Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) internship programs, one at Kansas State University and one at Notre Dame, where she worked with the Physics Department’s Michael Wiescher, designing and building a support structure for a 6-by-6 foot piece of scintillator, wrote code and learned to run their accelerators. At the beginning and end of each summer, she made her way home to work on the family farm and other summer jobs.

She came to William and Mary in May 2011 and spent that first summer working at Jefferson Lab with Todd Averett.

“He pointed me in the direction of (William and Mary Assistant Professor of Physics) Wouter Deconinck, who needed a student,” Gray explained of the next stage of her work. She has continued as a teaching assistant at William and Mary and helps run the REU program there, setting up events and tours. She also mentors undergraduates and is excited to take on the new duties at chair-elect for the FGSA. “I’m used to being really busy,’’ she said in something of an understatement.

Her term started in January and will assume the chair position next year. In her role as chair-elect, Gray helps coordinate annual meetings, select those who will receive grant money for travel, and arrange for speakers. She hopes to create a “link local” event in the Washington, D.C., area, which will help grad students network and learn about job opportunities. “I’m really excited to be part of this,” she said.