Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good

Jonathan Kustina in front of the ocean
Jonathan Kustina in front of the ocean

Jonathan Kustina

Senior CSCG Fellow

I have always had a passion for teaching others about the wonders of science, especially seeing the world in terms of mathematics. It is this desire to spread scientific information to all that drew me to the Center for Science and the Common Good. The CSCG has given me the opportunity to not only impart scientific knowledge to students at Ursinus, but to see how students from different backgrounds learn and grow. After Ursinus, I hope to teach physics or math at the high school or college level and hopefully inspire a new generation to be passionate about physics and what it can bring to the world.

My Major/Minor/Campus Organizations

Majors in Physics and Mathematics / Secondary Education Certification / Phi Kappa Sigma, UCTV

My Favorite CSCG Events

<– Click on the links to the left!  My personal favorite speaker event was Dr. Matt Strassler. It is not often that physics speakers come to Ursinus, and as someone who was a bit sketchy on the big physics concepts behind the Higgs Boson, I was ecstatic to see what a true expert in the field could teach. It was also insightful to see how these difficult physics concepts could be taught easily to a non-expert audience, a skill I hope to gain in my future career.

  • Dr. Matt Strassler
  • Dr. Bernard Harris

My CSCG Courses

POL-399 (Science and the Common Good); POL-242 (Comparative Politics);

My Research

I did my research with Prof. Lewis Riley during the Ursinus College Summer Fellows Program. Along with collaborations from the NSCL, I was able to conduct inverse-kinematic proton scattering on Calcium-52 ions to determine the theoretical efficiency of the GRETA array of gamma ray detectors with the new facilities available at FRIB. I was able to present my research at the October 2014 Conference Experience for Undergraduates sponsored by the APS and JPS.

Life After Ursinus

My passion for teaching others about math and physics is what drew me to the CSCG. It has given me the chance to see how students from different backgrounds learn, an under- standing I will bring to my career as a teacher.