Former Stanhope Valedictorian Headed To Duke To Research Physics and Hopefully Wrestle

By Gerri Miller

Staff Writer

A 21-year-old Troy University student from Millbrook who has traveled the world working with some of the top physics researchers is headed to Duke University on a $110,000 package and a desire to join Duke’s wrestling team.

Ty Naquin, who recently graduated from Troy with a degree in physics and a 4.0 grade point average, will be working to get his Ph.D. in physics. Duke will pay him a stipend, pay his health insurance, fees and books.  The total package is worth $110,000.  He said fourteen different institutions offered him competitive packages to attend their schools. He said he also plans to apply for fellowships from Duke.

“I am going to go by June and start working early,” he said.

Naquin was the valedictorian of Stanhope Elmore’s 2016 graduating class. He was also the 2016 Class 6A wrestling champion.  “I am going to try out for the wrestling team at Duke,” he said. “I only have one year left for Division 1 eligibility.” He hasn’t wrestled since high school because Troy didn’t have a wrestling team.

He said he also plays a lot of competitive ultimate frisbee and plans to try out for a professional frisbee team-the American Ultimate Disc League- next year.  So far, he has traveled extensively in the summer playing on his college team.

Naquin has also traveled extensively working in physics labs with some of the top researchers in his field. This past summer he lived in Paris and had the chance to work researching optics under a program run by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Gerard Mourou in France.

Naquin received the opportunity under the Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) funded by the National Science Foundation. An REU is a government-funded program that provides undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in some way in research in their major field of study. The opportunity allows students to experience research at world-class facilities with top-notch research faculty.

“I had the chance to work with powerful lasers to kill cancer cells,” he said.

The University of Michigan’s Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) in collaboration with its French partner institutions played host to Naquin’s program called Optics in the City of Lights. His research involved shooting high-intensity laser pulses that are like “chirps” at cancer cells and studying its effect on them.

“My whole REU was based on research on optics,” he said. “I basically worked with fancy lasers, shooting it at cancer cells trying to kill them. Mourou invented the method where you shoot a laser like how a bird chirps.

The REU strengthens a student’s resume for graduate school since it indicates that the student has begun to develop some of the research skills needed to be successful in the pursuit of a higher degree.

“Troy is not a research college, so we don’t have very many opportunities for research,” Naquin said. “And for people that go to colleges like Troy where you can’t get a lot of research, this was a great opportunity to get an experience (with) something I am interested in,” he said.

Naquin also spent a summer doing research at Cleveland State University. “Our research including trying to use proteins for drug delivery inside of our bodies,” Naquin said.

He said the physics program at Troy is relatively new. “I was only the sixth person to graduate with a physics degree from Troy,” he said. He said he was initially interested in engineering, but Troy didn’t offer an engineering major.

So what does the future possibly hold for this incredibly talented and hard-working student? “I want to form a start-up company in the next four to five years based on my future research,” he said. He said his research at Duke will be applicable to biology and medicine and he ultimately hopes his company can improve community health.