Pasadena, CA — No longer content with monatomic gases, Caltech Vice President of Student Affairs Joe Shepherd has moved on to studying undergraduate students subjected to extreme pressures in a rapidly changing environment.

Caltech undergraduates are a fascinating material for study. They’re incredibly volatile. Even with the most minor of disturbances to their fragile ecosystem, they go fucking bonkers.

Shepherd also has led projects investigating industrial accidents, such as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Bechtel residence.

He also works with the Hypervelocity Shock Tunnel to study the safest way to introduce new freshmen to life in the Houses.