Monday, May 6, 2024
OSU alumnus beats cancer, leans on God, family ed Caffey to get his heart Anna Gret Asi O’Colly Contributor checked.
Courtesy of OSU News
OSU students and faculty traveled to Zurich in March, representing the United States in the International Physicists’ Tournament.
OSU Physics Team wins 6th at international tournament Jade Dudley OSU News A team of five students from Oklahoma State University’s Department of Physics traveled to Zurich in March to compete in the International Physicists’ Tournament, representing the United States as they placed sixth in the world. The 2024 OSU Physics Team consisted of students Brenden Martin, Nathan May, Nathan Rago, Nathan Ross and Jennie Russell, as well as Matthew Maxim from the University of Arizona. The students were presented with 17 physics problems chosen by the IPT executive committee that revolved around mechanics, fluid dynamics, electricity and magnetism problems. “As team members, we choose a problem from the list that interests us. We then discuss our progress on our own, discussing ideas and experiments from literature and mental or physical roadblocks,” Rago said. “The keys to successful teamwork are open-mindedness, patience, and rationality. In solving these complex problems,
more often than not, we become very passionate about our interpretation or research, even if it is misguided or wrong.” The format of the tournament involves three positions in what’s called a “fight”: reporter, opposer and moderator. The opponent challenges the reporter with a physics problem, to which the reporter responds, and then the opponent critiques their solution. After the critique, the moderator facilitates a discussion between the two and aids in enhancing the solution. After the argument concludes, the teams are scored by the judges and the format repeats with the team’s rotating positions. The team collectively said that besides the complex questions, the most difficult aspect was managing stress. “It is essential to keep an open mind about each other’s ideas, have patience for criticism, and be rational when talking to another team member about their problem,” Rago said. One of the team’s questions was called the “Bright Spot,” which required them to investigate how a bright spot can be created in the middle of a shadow of a spherical object when shined with a light. “Our team developed a
solution using the mathematical principle of the evolute, where we trace out every point on the curve of the resultant shadow,” Ross said. “We then tested this by replicating Arago-Poisson’s Dot experiment with differing shapes and seeing if the evolute principle holds. The solution utilized a lot of wave optics and mathematical principles.” Between the fierce competition and urge to win, the team said the tournament’s environment was like no other. “You could tell in the build up to the semifinals how much everyone wanted to win, which made it that more intense,” Ross said. “We could tell early on how tough competing against the top universities would be, but we enjoyed the challenge and fared pretty well against the rest of the world.” May explained that the time and effort it took to prepare for both the U.S. Physicists’ Tournament and International Physicists’ Tournament was comparable to enrolling in an additional college course. “But there is no guarantee that the problem you prepared for will be chosen [during competition],” May said. See Team on 7
Silent disco bonds students before finals Brady Levings O’Colly Contributor
and glowing party. On Thursday, Housing and Residential Life hosted Late Night! Silent Party-White It Out. The late-night community This was hosted in the ballroom of Housing and Residential Life of the Student Union and lasted had its end-of-the-semester silent from 8-10 p.m. Attendants of the event
were treated to food and drinks alongside headphones that had different channels for music. The attendants were also ask to wear white for the purple lights in a dark room and a fog machine. See Disco on 6
It was 4 p.m. on a Tuesday in spring 2023 when Jay Caffey got a life-changing text from his doctor. Caffey went to get his heart checked not long after his best friend had passed away from a heart attack. While his heart was in good condition, doctors discovered a mysterious lump on his thyroid. “Dr. Hill texted me, he was busy,” Caffey said. “So he’s just (said) ‘Hey, they found a lump and you’ve got cancer.’ I texted him back, ‘That’s not funny. That’s not a cool joke, man. That’s a phone call if you’re for real.’” It’s that sense of humor that helped this OSU alumnus beat cancer. Born in Hennessy, Caffey said he had a strong faith and belief in Jesus. He grew up active and healthy and even went to school to become a firefighter. However, over the years, Caffey started to have health problems, which tested his relationship with Jesus. Before Caffey was diagnosed with cancer, he was struggling with his weight. He started experiencing symptoms, such as food getting stuck in his throat. However, he never went to the doctor. “I thought, ‘I’m fine, I don’t need to go,’ so I never went to get it checked out,” Caffey said. “Then I had other symptoms that are related to metabolism, and mood, which affects your thyroid. I had no symptoms until later.” After his best friend’s passing, Caffey, who graduated from OSU in 1994 with a production engineering degree, was looking for new friends. He met Brad Middlebrook through their daughters, who are both on the OSU Pom squad. “We met on the field when our daughters were both on the Homecoming court, and we were standing next to each other when we walked out with our daughters,” Middlebrook said. “His wife had said that his best friend had just passed away, and we should hang out because he’s been kind of lonely looking for friends to lean on.” Caffey and Middlebrook became closer. They found similar things they enjoyed doing, such as playing golf and hanging out at restaurants. Middlebrook had heard a radio commercial that recommended getting a heart scan for $50. Caffey and Middlebrook went for a meal at Ted Taco’s restaurant when Middlebrook recommend-
“I had told him I had gotten a heart scan done at Stillwater Medical Center,” Middlebrook said. “It was really easy. It made me feel good that my heart was in good shape. I said ‘You should go and get this thing done. It’s $50, and it makes you feel better.’” Caffey listened to Middlebrook’s advice and went to get a heart scan. This was the turning point for the Caffey family. The doctors saw a lump on Caffey’s neck, which indicated a serious problem. After further tests, Caffey was diagnosed with a stage two thyroid cancer. Dr. Dan Hill said Caffey’s case was uncommon because thyroid cancer is more common in women as it is in men. “Most of the patients I see are women, and most of them are older,” Dr. Hill said. “Jay’s case is very unusual because thyroid cancer is about three to four times more prevalent in women than men and tends to be in women older than 50.” Caffey’s wife, Brooke Caffey, said her husband is a big worrier. She remembers trying to stay positive and keep the spirits of the family in a good place. “This is not a big deal,” Brooke Caffey said. “It’s going to be fine. But even times where I got a little more worried, I tried to not show because he was worrying enough for the both of us.” Because thyroid cancer has high survival rates, Middlebrook, being a jokester, supported Caffey with his humor. “I was making fun of him for having such an easy cancer to get over,” Middlebrook said. “I said, ‘Your cancer is going to be so easy to beat that when they’re asking all the cancer survivors to stand up at OSU basketball games you don’t even get to stand up.’ I would make fun of his of his problem just to keep it light. I knew it was very serious, but I really used to make jokes with him.” While people close to Caffey kept the spirits high, he was hiding the panic about his new reality from his friends and family. His only option to beat cancer was surgery. Caffey said deep down he was desperately looking for God’s guidance. He said his sense of feeling helpless was similar to a Bible story in which Jesus is in a boat with the fishermen as a storm with massive waves hits the sea. Peter slips out of the boat, and the waves pound against him. Every time he comes up for air, the waves force him back down. See Alumnus on 8