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Emma Morrone, Applied Physics

As a captain and starting point guard for the women’s basketball team, Emma Morrone was always moving on the court.

Therefore, it seems only fitting that she will graduate this spring with a degree in .

“What interests me the most about physics is the way it’s embedded into everything,” she said. “Whether it’s driving a car, using your phone, or playing basketball, physics is at work.”

The Maywood, Bergen County, native led the team in assists and steals for the second year in a row. And for the third year in a row, she and was voted this year New Jersey Athletic Conference Honorable Mention.

And while many students on campus have probably seen her move up and down the basketball court, Morrone also has been a standout student off it.

This past year, she was selected as one of 40 students across eight different New Jersey universities to be a part of the New Jersey Wind Institute for Innovation and Training Fellowship Program.

“Over the summer, Dr. Joseph Trout shared the fellowship opportunity with me after I had expressed interest in doing research with him,” Morrone said.

Morrone not only presented her project — “Do Wind Farms Affect the Local Mesoscale and Synoptic Scales of Weather?” — at the state Wind Institute Research Symposium on April 12, but she also traveled to Minneapolis in March to present at a meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), a nonprofit organization whose mission is the advancement and diffusion of physics. 

“It allowed me to gain experience presenting research as well as learn new interesting things happening in the world of physics,” Morrone said about the APS meeting. “I was able to interact with so many people from all around the world, including physics students my age and also people with years of experience in the field.”

Morrone is a member of the and the Honor Society of Physics Students, . She also worked with the intramural sports program on campus for three years and spoke to students at Galloway Township Middle School about the harmful impacts of bullying. 

One of the biggest challenges she faced at ������Ƶ — besides being away from her twin sister and best friend Julia — was balancing academics and basketball.

“There were days when I had to choose between hanging out with friends or staying in to do homework, but you have to be willing to make those choices if it means becoming a successful student-athlete,” said Morrone, who added that study hall time mandated by coach Devin Jefferson helped her prioritize classes. “It helped me become great at time management and being able to handle adversity better when it came to school.”

After graduation, Morrone plans to look for a job in engineering “where I can hopefully be a part of creating something that can have a positive impact on others and be able to be creative and learn something new every day.”

And while she said she will miss all the “amazing people I have met at ������Ƶ,” she said she will especially miss “my basketball team.”

“Being able to be a part of a team at the collegiate level is an opportunity I will eternally be grateful for,” Morrone said. “The feeling of stepping on our home court on game day is indescribable. I’ve made lifelong friends and shared laughs that I will remember for a long time.”