Elaina Saltclah, from the Red Mesa, Arizona area, near the Four Corners, first introduces herself in her native Navajo language, including the names of her clans. A Fort Lewis College student majoring in physics, with a minor in mathematics, and a young mother, Saltclah speaks with a self-assured smile, her confidence bolstered through participation in a novel program connecting students like her with a future in the daunting world of physics research.
"What made me interested in physics is simple curiosity into something ordinary, like the stars, or gravity," Saltclah explained. "That fundamental curiosity about why things are the way they are is what drove me to the field."
Our everyday experience of the stars or gravity belies the complex physics that underpins the mysteries of such phenomena and how they behave. And Saltclah, within the unique physics education partnership between Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and Los Alamos National Laboratory that has her traveling to work on advanced experiments and conduct research with Los Alamos physicists, is now deep into studying those mysteries, such as the nature of quark-gluon plasma, which formed the universe in its first microseconds after the Big Bang.
Her dream of becoming a physicist is nearer than she might ever have expected.
Engaging indigenous women in physics
Initiated two years ago as a pilot program, an effort to bring undergraduate Indigenous women into physics has blossomed into a steady source of physics education and opportunities. Now in its third year, the "Engaging Indigenous Women in Nuclear Physics" program has grown to include four Fort Lewis College students, Saltclah among them, with Los Alamos National Laboratory partnering to provide mentorship and research with cutting-edge experiments. Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico, is also developing a complementary physics education and research program.
