At Libby Gardner Hall April 16, when the lights came up on the University of Utah's Jazz Guitar Ensemble, few people would have guessed that one of the eight musicians in the College of Fine Arts group was a budding computational astrophysicist and researcher.

But there she was — Lukas Mesicek — strumming with her fellow guitarists the opening strains of Victor Young's fetching "A Weaver of Dreams."

An honors student double-majoring in physics and mathematics — with minors in music and astronomy — Mesicek herself may be attracted to what's been called the easy-bake blowing tunes of Herbie Hancock or the groundbreaking works of bossa nova impresario Luis Bonfa, but she also follows her bliss in the Department of Physics and Astronomy with Professor John Belz. There she uses recent advancements in numerical analysis to simulate a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum.

When Mesicek is not navigating (in code) "axisymmetric spacetimes," thus furthering our understanding of the gravitational and cosmological processes which govern our universe, the recently awarded Goldwater Scholar can be found further traversing the academic cosmos at the U. In addition to demonstrating academic excellence in the classroom, including in multiple graduate courses, Mesicek has also contributed to research projects in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering and with Anton Burtsev, assistant professor in the Kahlert School of Computing. In 2023 she was co-author with Burtsev of a published research article demonstrating an approach that significantly lowers "proof-to-code" ratios in formally-verified operating systems.

Extended pursuits

Lukas Mesicek

This rich and energizing pursuit through pure and applied sciences demonstrates, Mesicek says, that "scientific endeavors are a very collaborative process." In her research today, she uses computational simulations to investigate systems on the threshold of black hole formation. "In this regime," she notes, "there are a number of 'critical phenomena' with important implications for cosmic censorship, primordial black holes, and our understanding of the dynamics of general relativity."

Outside research itself, she serves as an officer in the local chapter of the Society of Physics Students while at the same time netted a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Department of Physics & Astronomy, an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program award from the Office of Undergraduate Research.  She has also been awarded the James B. & Betty Debenham Scholarship by the Honors College, among other accolades. All this while attending practice with her fellow jazz guitarists for performances like the one in April, kicking out bossa nova favorites like "Black Orpheus" and funk tunes "Watermelon Man" and "Breeze."

Her gift on the guitar with the ensemble is not only a perfect accent to her extended science and math pursuits, acknowledged widely, but it also deeply informs the collaborative way she works not only with empirically-derived or scientific findings but promising real-world applications, like coding. These pursuits are also informed by the philosophical. Mesicek has benefited from honors courses in philosophy and literature that, she says, “provided a crucial context for the history of human inquiry and helped me understand what motivates us to do science.” This too is where her musicianship complements the rest of her life in math, physics and astronomy which by design builds on the work of past scientific discoveries like Einstein's theory of relativity. "I am only just beginning to scratch the surface of the world of jazz improvisation, which builds on rich musical theory while also requiring a large degree of spontaneous creativity."

Varied approaches and experiences at the blackboard, in the classroom and in the lab are now creatively culminating in Mesicek's honors thesis which employs numerical simulations to continue her investigation into critical phenomena in black hole formation. The thesis is proof positive that the science isn't done until it's been communicated (or so it is argued) and has, she says, “served as practice for writing academic articles,” and improved “my ability to communicate technical subject matter to both experts and nonscientists.”

"Like so many of the students our office supports," says Ginger Smoak, director of the U's Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships, "Lukas has taken advantage of the rigorous coursework, research and leadership experiences, and faculty mentorship available at the University of Utah. Lukas’ scholarship application was stellar and demonstrated to the Goldwater Foundation that she is nationally competitive and has the capacity to become a leading computational astrophysicist and researcher."

Smoak, whose office helps students and recent alumni navigate complex application processes and develop competitive applications, explains that The Goldwater Scholarship is an endorsed scholarship, which means that U applicants must be vetted and nominated by a faculty committee.

black hole physics

The endgame of Mesicek's sojourn at the U is to propel her towards earning a doctoral degree after graduation and to become a computational astrophysicist and professor at a research university. As for her most recent accolade offered through the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation — the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in its fields — she says that she is honored to be its recipient. "Going through the application process allowed me to clarify my own interests within astrophysics," she says, "and the awarded funding will enable my planned program of study and research in black hole physics."

Back at the concert hall, there is another culmination, a kind of cap-stone to the remarkable mind and person who is Mesicek, sourced by the University of Utah community which this Goldwater recipient has called, of late, "home." The jazz guitar ensemble is a metaphor for the kind of collaboration and inter-disciplinary work, punctuated with short, melodic phrases that can be repeated or varied during improvisation, what in the jazz genre is called "licks." These solos build out the melodic lines, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts, something that in the science-laced composition of the guitarist Lukas Mesicek makes for an arresting whole and start of what promises to be an auspicious career.