Nicholas Abell

A Little bit about me:    

Hello Everyone, I am Nicholas Abell, a second-year Math and Physics major, though I lean much more towards the math side. I am from Crownsville, Maryland, a much lesser known town outside of Maryland's capital, Annapolis. Fun Fact, the Crownsville Hospital Center held Elsie Lacks, the daughter of Henrietta Lacks (the woman from whom the infamous HeLa cancer cells came). Despite living in the Crab State, I fervently refuse to eat crab. In my free time, I enjoy training for sprint triathlons (This photo of me is right before I ran the Lake Murray Triathlon in April). Sprint triathlons consist of a 0.5 mile swim in open water, a 12-15 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run, all back to back. As one can imagine, they are physically and mentally exhausting but nothing is more satisfying than crossing the finish line at the end!

Why I chose this MayX:

I've had this MayX on my radar since taking the First-Year Writing Seminar "Turing: Thinking, Machines, Codes and other Enigmas". The course was dedicated to the various facet's of Turing's life, but I was most partial to his code-breaking work during WWII. I was particularly enthralled by our discussions of the Enigma code. I am very excited for the opportunity to further explore the Enigma cipher and get into some of the math used in Bletchley park to eventually decrypt it. During this course, I had the pleasure of listening to Sir Dermot Turing give a talk over zoom, and I am especially excited for the chance to meet him in person and discuss the life of his Uncle.

Things I'm Excited to do in London:

1. Visit St. Paul's Cathedral. I am super excited to see the stunning architecture up close, and frankly this would be my first time visiting a cathedral.

2. On recommendation from a friend, visit a bakery called Ben's Cookies. They have locations all over Europe and Asia, but none in America, so of course I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity while I have the chance.

3. Run a 10k in Richmond Park on June 1st. Apparently Richmond Park is very beautiful and it will be so awesome to be able to say that I've raced in another Country!