Joel Tenenbaum

Skipping classes is no big deal to some college students. Then there’s Joel Tenenbaum, who recently was hit by a bus while riding his bike to a physics class he takes at Johns Hopkins. His first thought, he says, was “I’ve got to make it to class on time.”

This dogged senior is pursuing bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics, and until recently, he also was aiming for a music minor. One of the things Tenenbaum likes about the atmosphere at Goucher is that students are encouraged to study across the disciplines.

“You’re not completely enveloped by science people; you’re around people who aren’t like you. So I’ve gotten to learn and indulge in all my other interests that might not have anything to do with math or science,” he says.

Tenenbaum has been awarded the Alumnae/i Prize in Physics and the Julia Gontrum Hill Award in Music. He performed a senior piano recital this spring, playing pieces by artists ranging from Bach to Billy Joel, and presented a poster called “Differential Conductance of Type-II Superconductors in High-Magnetic Field, Low-Temperature Limit” at the Council of Undergraduate Research Posters on the Hill session in 2005. He was one of just 80 students nationwide who were asked to present a poster at this annual event. With both left and right-brain talent, Tenenbaum could pursue a range of job possibilities. He’s decided to take the science route and plans to begin the Ph.D. track in physics at Boston University, though he also was accepted at Brown and Johns Hopkins universities.

One of the benefits of attending BU is that it has a larger physics program than Hopkins or Brown, so he’ll be exposed to more options-which is good, because while he’s ruled out astrophysics, Tenenbaum isn’t sure if his passion lies in high-energy/particle physics or condensed-matter physics. He says he would be drawn to a career in academia because he finds teaching people to be very rewarding, but says, “The issue is that it is so competitive. It’s insane.” Tenenbaum thinks private industry will pay him a lot better than academia, and it will be a lot easier to get into.

This summer he plans on getting into a whole lot of nothing. Until classes begin this fall, Tenenbaum plans on relaxing around his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, and traveling to Portugal in June to visit his younger sister.