"I get to form relationships with my professors. I get small classes with good discussions. I’m at peace here."

By the time Jorge Gherson '27 sat down to apply to colleges, he was ready for a change of pace. "I wanted a small, tight-knit community with small class sizes," says Gherson, who hails from Lima, Peru, a city with more than 10 million inhabitants. "That was probably the determining factor as to why I decided to apply and commit here: I could see myself forming close relationships outside of the classroom, which might be more challenging within the city. I could see myself having insightful conversations with my professors."

In fact, it was shortly after arriving on campus that Gherson found himself connecting with professors and ideas that would expose him to new passions. "I came here intending to major in neuroscience, but I’d been interested in physics since I was a kid. I was just afraid to commit because I was never that strong at math," he says. 

However, a course with Professor Tom Solomon, physics & astronomy, got him to reconsider. "I always thought that physics was a field of geniuses, but it's actually a field of hard workers. Professor Solomon got me to see that. He really won me over."

It didn’t take long for Gherson to throw himself full tilt into the social and extracurricular activities Bucknell has to offer. "The first thing I got involved with was Chabad on campus," says Gherson. "Coming from a Jewish family, even though I'm not religious, I think it's important to feel like you're in a community. It's been an excellent social club and has made me find a sense of belonging." 

Jorge Gherson '27 uncovered a love for math as a physics major. Photo by Emily Paine, Marketing & Communications

As a teaching assistant (TA) for Astronomy 102, Gherson helped run the night labs alongside Professors Jack Gallimore and Michelle Thornley, physics & astronomy. "I got to assist in setting up the telescope at the Bucknell Observatory, which was really awesome," he says.

His work as an astronomy TA deepened his academic interests while, at the same time, he worked on a research project with Professor Jackie Villadsen, physics & astronomy, in which he spent four months collecting, cleaning, manipulating and interpreting data gathered from the Very Large Array, a radio astronomy observatory in New Mexico. His collaboration with Villadsen then evolved into a summer research project.

"I worked with a binary star system that's about 60 light-years away," says Gherson. "I investigated the nature of recorded bursts from that star system to determine if they were random or if perhaps the system itself was breaking down, all with the goal of deepening our understanding of radio bursts and their impact on planet habitability." 

Beyond the classroom, Gherson has helped relaunch the Bucknell chapter of the Society of Physics. "It wasn't around my first year, so even though restarting the club is exciting for me, I think it's actually for incoming first-year students who will be able to connect with others who share a common interest," he says. 

In some ways, Gherson's academic career looks much different than what he could have imagined. In others, his experience at Bucknell is precisely what he'd hoped for. "I get to form relationships with my professors. I get small classes with good discussions," he says. "I'm at peace here."