Isfar Munir, a senior at Tracy High, is already working with college professors at the University of Davis on his own physics experiment. Munir has always taken an interest in physics and wants to pursue a career in it. His experiment is testing how temperature and humidity affect the properties of electric discharges.

“I go up to the University of California Davis where I have a controlled chamber,” Munir said. “In the chamber, I set the temperature and humidity of the air, and I put an electric discharge which causes lightning at a small scale.”

Munir records his data by taking pictures of his experiment and measuring how far the lightning travels at each arc. Munir admits that his experiment is difficult to understand and that not many people study it.

“Electric discharge behavior is unexplored in the world of physics,” Munir said. “No one really understands it.”

Munir’s experiment does however help people and serves a greater purpose.

“This experiment helps expand human knowledge,” Munir said. “There have been ideas to use open air discharges to move power around without the use of wires.

Munir explains that this experiment helps people understand how lightning behaves. The advantages of knowing the behavior of lightning is so that we can one day learn how to control it in a useful way and use it for power.

Munir feels excited that his experiment is rare and that no other high school student is doing it.

“It’s really exciting going into an undiscovered country in the landscape of physics.” Munir said.

Two Davis professors, Dr. Randy Harris and Dr. Cort Anastasio, help Munir conduct his experiment. After coming up with the idea for his experiment he emailed them and they agreed to help.

“I sent them research proposals through an email,” Munir said. “They helped me get my materials and worked with me on the experiment.”

Munir decided to work with the Davis professors because paying money to conduct an experiment would be too expensive.

“I wanted to give the experiment a try, and I knew people paid money for research programs,” Munir said. “I didn’t want to pay the money, so I asked professors to see if I could do it for free and it worked.”

Munir hopes to one day have a career in physics. He is unsure if his career will be revolving around this specific experiment however.

“I want to take the path of physics,” Munir said. “I will continue with this experiment depending on the state of it after I finish my Ph.D.”

Munir is applying to many colleges to accomplish his goal, but is unsure of which one he wants to go to.

“I’m applying to 16 different colleges, but I haven’t visited them all,” Munir said. “I don’t have any favorites.”

Munir’s experiment has been successful so far, and he hopes to one day publish a paper on his experiment.

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Rana Khan

Isfar Munir, senior