{"id":66557,"date":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/richmond-resident-to-graduate-from-uri-may-18-as-top-physics-student\/"},"modified":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-08T00:00:00","slug":"richmond-resident-to-graduate-from-uri-may-18-as-top-physics-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/05\/richmond-resident-to-graduate-from-uri-may-18-as-top-physics-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Richmond resident to graduate from URI May 18 as top physics student"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2008 — When it was time for Edison, N.J. native Michael Segala to go away to college at the University of Rhode Island, his whole family went with him. <\/p>\n


\nThe Segala family left its long-time home in 2004 and moved to Richmond so Michael\u2019s father, Jim, could enroll in a doctoral program at URI, and his older brother David transferred to URI from the University of New Haven and subsequently enrolled in a doctoral program as well.<\/p>\n


\nWith the University\u2019s commencement ceremonies approaching on May 18, the youngest Segala will be in the spotlight. In addition to receiving bachelor\u2019s degrees in physics and mathematics, Michael Segala will be honored with the President\u2019s Award for Student Excellence as the top physics student on campus.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI always liked math and science growing up, and I originally was a math major, but after taking a few physics courses I knew that was where my real interest lay,\u201d he said. \u201cI kept the math major because you need a very good mathematics background to pursue physics. You might say that math is the language of physics.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSegala\u2019s interest in physics grew quickly when he began working in a biophysics laboratory with URI Professor Yana Reshetnyak during his sophomore year.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe work to deliver a peptide to cancer cells to kill the cancer,\u201d said Segala. \u201cThe physical properties behind these systems — and applying them to real world issues — is what caught my attention and interest in physics.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe have a peptide \u2013 a small segment of a protein \u2013 that is attracted to areas in the body that exhibit a low pH,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe cellular environment around cancer cells has a low pH, so therefore we are able to target cancer cells and introduce a toxin into them, thereby rendering them dead while leaving healthy cells unaffected.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSegala\u2019s facility in the laboratory has led him to co-author eight articles and abstracts in scientific journals, including two in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, an accomplishment very few undergraduates can claim.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI spent most of my undergraduate time in the lab, and that\u2019s really what I\u2019ve enjoyed the most,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helped that my dad and brother had already told me about their research experiences, which gave me a sense of what to expect and how to approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHaving his father studying and conducting research in the same URI department has been an unexpected plus. \u201cIt gives me a full-time tutor whenever I need one and has really motivated me to succeed. We even had two courses together, which turned out to be great!\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFollowing graduation, Segala will enroll in a doctoral program in physics at Brown University, with the goal of becoming a college professor and continuing to pursue research.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cI think I\u2019d like to eventually get into astrophysics,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been intrigued with studying dark matter, black holes and the Big Bang.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nGiven his success to date, Segala should have no trouble shooting for the stars.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2008 — When it was time for Edison, N.J. native Michael Segala to go away to college at the University of Rhode Island, his whole family went with him. The Segala family left its long-time home in 2004 and moved to Richmond so Michael\u2019s father, Jim, could enroll in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}