What was your first time getting published? What was that experience like?

My undergraduate senior thesis at Wellesley College resulted in a publication in a physics journal. It was exciting that I could make a tangible scientific contribution as an undergraduate. The paper involved modeling electrorheological fluids in a shear flow. An electrorheological fluid contains particles which respond to an applied electric field, for example, by lining up along the field lines to form particle sheets The fluid properties change as the field is turned on and off. These types of fluids have applications for breaks and shock absorbers.