Electric Ice: USU Physics Scholar Ascends Utah's Capitol Hill to Share Atmospheric Science

Utah State University Honors student Joseph Cooney became enamored of Cache Valley’s encircling mountains during his first campus visit and concluded, after getting to know a few Aggies, that USU offered a community he could “be a part of.”

Utah’s mountainous terrain and climate now form a key part of the physics major’s research, which he’ll share with state legislators and the public Thursday, Jan. 18, as a participant in the 2024 Undergraduate Research Day on Utah’s Capitol Hill. The St. Louis native is among 27 Aggies presenting research posters at the annual gathering, which brings scholars from Utah State and the University of Utah to the hub of the state’s legislative activity.

With guidance from faculty mentors Binod Pokharel and Jon Meyer in USU’s Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Cooney developed a computer simulation in Python to study ice crystal formation and how atmospheric electric fields affect those crystals.

“Utah’s mountains can drive specialized weather events,” he says. “Dust particles in the air become charged, which drive electric storms. Those particles act as the starting point for ice crystals, but the effects that electric charging from the atmosphere has on ice crystal formation is not well known.”

With the simulation, Cooney found water molecules align differently under electric fields.

“Stronger electric fields keep molecules close to the nucleus, which helps crystals grow,” he says. “The stronger the electric fields, the faster the ice crystals grow. Denser, more uniform nuclei may be more stable and are more likely to form crystals that fall as snow.”

Understanding how ice crystals form and react to atmospheric electricity can add to knowledge about the amount of ice and snow that will be produced in Utah’s mountains.

“What we’re learning is an overabundance of dust particles compared to the water in the air means less snow,” Cooney says. “Dust particles help to make snow, but if there are too many, the droplets and ice that form aren’t ‘heavy’ enough to become precipitation.”

This year marks Cooney’s third year of participation in the Capitol Hill event, initiated in 2000, which highlights the importance of university research to the welfare of local communities and in preparing Utah scholars to tackle future challenges.

“Sharing science in public venues is important, because some people are distrustful of science,” Cooney says. “It’s important to share the message that research can benefit society.”

The undergraduate has been involved in a variety of research projects investigating physicochemical characterization of foods with faculty mentor Silvana Martini, professor in USU’s Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences, and director of the Aggie Chocolate Factory.

Cooney has been an author of three peer-reviewed papers in JAOCS, the journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society: one about the effect of cannabidiol (CBD) on the crystallization behavior of varied fats, another about chocolate viscosity, and a third about oleogelator molecules.

“I chose physics as my major, even though I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do,” he says. “I Just knew I wanted to do science.”

Beyond the lab, Cooney is pursuing winter sports offered by the state’s “Greatest Snow on Earth,” including skiing at Beaver Mountain and sledding USU’s Old Main Hill.

For the future, he plans further study of molecular simulations and graduate study in computational chemistry.

“Utah State is a great place for undergraduates to pursue research,” Cooney says. “The key is to keep an open mind and explore all options, including areas beyond your usual interests.”