Florida Tech Scholar-Athlete Spotlight Recognizes Swimmer Colin Harrison

Harrison is majoring in Astrophysics and Astronomy

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field.

Panther men’s swimmer Colin Harrison, a junior who is majoring in Astrophysics and Astronomy, sat down with us for this edition of Scholar-Athlete Spotlight.

Making the journey from Sag Harbor, NY, Colin earned his first collegiate victory last October but triumphed in the 100 Fly vs. Lynn and would go on to earn four top-five finishes throughout the season.

This past spring, Colin was part of a research group with Dr. Eric Pearlman and Dr. Evan Smith.

As Panther Swimming began their 2023-24, Colin shared with us what goes into being a scholar-athlete and what made him look toward the stars.

■ Your major at Florida Tech is different from most, tell us a little bit about it.

My major is Astrophysics and Astronomy, and I’m a huge space nerd, have been my whole life. I was always a Carl Sagan fan, I watched The Cosmos growing up, the VHS box sets, back when they still made them (laughs).

I read all of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s books. I’d be lying if I said every time I was in New York City, I didn’t wait outside the observatory and try to catch him coming in and out. So, I’ve always known that I wanted to be in astrophysics, and it’s a good place to be.

■ I imagine you had to be pretty excited when it came time to pick a college and there’s a school less than hour away from the Kennedy Space Center, that must’ve made it an easy choice.

It’s like this was designed right for me and I actually found Florida Tech a little late to my application process. It wasn’t even me, a couple of my family members who found it. I was looking at some other schools here and there but nothing matched like how Florida Tech did.

■ Given everything your major encompasses, what’s an assignment or project you’ve had in your classes that you’ve really enjoyed?

Last semester, I had a class with Dr. [David] Harris, it was Observational Astronomy. That was a lot of fun because it was like a half lecture, half lab class. But for the lab, we got on top of the Olin [Physical Sciences Center] and used the telescopes.

I did a project last semester with two of my friends for light sails and it’s a cool concept for extra-galactic space travel and it’s not within my lifetime kind of technology, but it’s really cool to think about those kinds of things, deep thought experiments and try to apply the science that we can understand.

■ Once you’ve graduated from Florida Tech, what’s something you want to do in your field? I have to imagine there a lot of different possibilities.

I would definitely like to get my master’s degree, it’s a little bit necessary in astrophysics. But the cool thing about astrophysics, and especially astronomy is that you can work towards your masters in the field. I think it might be a little bit different with some of the majors, where you have to pick between your master’s and going straight into the workforce.

But what I could probably do is get a radiation tech job at a lab and try to see if there are any opening positions more concentrated in my field. I can also work here and try to accomplish my master’s degree well, either teaching classes or tutoring or signing on with any one of the big tech companies within five minutes of here.

■ What are some things you need to get the most out of study time? Swimmers schedules are especially busy, so it’s essential to get the most out of that.

As little distractions around me as possible, with the exception of music, because I can’t study in my room, I have cool stuff in my room. I’ll sit on my computer, I’ll put my books out, you’ll see a Rubik’s cube on the side of my table and the night is gone.

I liked the library a lot, especially the fourth floor because they have the little booths that you can study in. Any freshmen that are watching, that’s the place you gotta be because I had no idea it was that helpful my freshman year. But I gotta have music in my ear to keep me focused, especially if I’m with my friends because I will talk to them.

■ Is there a teammate or fellow athlete who you’ve become study buddies with?
I didn’t have to find them because there’s only one other Astrophysics major on the team and it’s Katherine [Helminiak] and she’s in my class too, so we have all the same classes together. We work on some projects together and every now and then she reminds me if we have an assignment.

■ What advice would you give to an athlete coming to Florida Tech that has an interest in Astrophysics and Astronomy?

The thing about our field is that you really have to know what you want to do after you get your degree because it’s not as broad as a spectrum as some of the other degrees here like engineering, or any other pure science and mathematics. There’s a very big difference between working in a lab or working towards a publication whilst teaching classes.

So, take a look at the opportunities in internships and jobs that you can work over the summer. Take a look at any other programs here as a dual major, or any extra classes that you can put on to the side.

For example, I’m going to take geophysics even though it has nothing to do with my major, just because I think it can help set up a foundation for if I wanted to second degree. A couple of my friends are doing that right now, that wasn’t my idea, I should credit them for that.

But take a look at some of the advantages that this school offers that other schools don’t. When I talk to my friends from back home, many of the schools that they go to don’t offer free tutoring, scheduling assistance.

The Student Center offers plenty of resources and help. Our library has study rooms you can rent out, so find a study group and pull some people on the major together. It’s a little bit difficult because astrophysics very small major here but find a crowd, get to know them because you could spend the next four years with them.

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