A Duke Professor Studies Light at the Quantum Level, What He Found Changed His Testimony (with Prof Aaron Franklin)

The moment he flunked out of college with a 0.96 GPA, Aaron Franklin was certain his academic life was over. He had gone to the University of Arizona thinking college would be as accessible as high school had been. It wasn't. He failed nearly every class, withdrew from others, and by the end of that year, he had convinced himself that returning to college was impossible. He was 18 years old, carrying the weight of complete academic failure, with no clear path forward.

Then came his mission to Georgia. Aaron Franklin is now one of the world's most influential nanotechnology researchers, a distinguished professor at Duke University, and an author who bridges the gap between faith and science. But none of that would have happened without a mission experience that transformed not just his spiritual life, but his entire capacity as a human being.

In this episode of Why We Believe, we sit down with Aaron to explore what happened in the middle, on his mission in Georgia, that turned a college dropout into a 4.0 student and eventually a fellow of the IEEE and the National Academy of Inventors. More importantly, we talk about how his research into light at the quantum level has deepened his understanding of Jesus Christ as the light of the world.

College Failure and the Call

The moment he flunked out of college with a 0.96 GPA, Aaron Franklin was certain his academic life was over. He had gone to the University of Arizona thinking college would be as accessible as high school had been. It wasn't. He failed nearly every class, and by the end of that year, he had convinced himself that returning seemed impossible. He was 18 years old, carrying the weight of complete academic failure.

Aaron grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, in a home with no religious background. He had never prayed. His friends invited him to their churches, one Catholic and another Baptist, and he felt drawn to something spiritual. When he convinced his mother to visit a church near their house, his grandmother, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, invited the family to visit the Mesa Arizona Temple visitor center. Aaron, then a young teenager, filled out a card asking for missionaries. A few months later, he was baptized. His siblings joined him, and six months later, his mother was baptized.

But when Aaron left for college, he carried an internal drive to understand God without the discipline needed for rigorous academics. He failed spectacularly. It was at this lowest point that he decided to serve a mission. He was called to Atlanta, Georgia. Before leaving, he was set apart by church leaders, including a man named Brother Davis who had been instrumental in his family's conversion. Brother Davis shared what happened to him: he had received a spiritual experience in which the Lord showed him a family that Aaron would baptize. He asked Aaron to send pictures of everyone he baptized.

The Georgia Miracle

Six months into his mission, Aaron received a letter from Brother Davis, who had now been called as a stake president. The letter repeated the prophecy: the Lord had shown him a specific family that Aaron would baptize. But it had been six months with no family conversions. The weight was devastating. Aaron sat alone in a pew at a zone conference, overwhelmed by fear that he had somehow missed them.

But he made a decision: with 18 months left, he would find that family. Fast forward to his final six weeks. Aaron was serving in the office when his mission president called him in with unexpected news. The president had been unsettled about the transfer board. Late the night before, he had received peace only after removing Aaron's name and reassigning him to Commerce, Georgia, to train a new missionary for his last six weeks.

Aaron drove to Commerce with his new companion. Within a week, thanks to a branch mission leader's incredible work building relationships with part-member families, Aaron had the largest teaching pool of his entire mission: 12 to 15 families. In his previous time, the largest had been five or six. Aaron called it the only word he had: a miracle.

Over those six weeks, baptisms happened. In his final two Sundays, the branch was made a ward. When Aaron returned home, he reported to President Davis at a High Council meeting. As he finished his story, President Davis asked to see the pictures. Aaron pulled two photos from his suit pocket, handed them down the table, and watched. Then President Davis said: "You found them."

What Aaron discovered was something that would reshape his entire life. Something had fundamentally changed. His mission was a complete reformation, not just spiritually, but in his capacity as a human being.

Light as Metaphor and Science

Aaron has spent his career studying light at scales smaller than visible wavelengths, where even Richard Feynman, one of the greatest quantum physicists, admitted he didn't understand how light works. Yet this very mystery mirrors something Jesus taught about spiritual light.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus is described as light shining in darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not. Aaron explains this through physical light: imagine you're in a dark room and someone shines a flashlight in your face. You'll know there's light, but you won't see anything around you. But if that person handed you the flashlight, and you chose to take it, you could gradually illuminate everything. That's how the gospel works. At first, it can feel overwhelming. But when you choose to receive it and use it to understand the world around you, it creates greater and greater comprehension.

Physical light cannot be stored. It must be generated from a power source. Aaron thinks of the Holy Ghost as an energy source for the light we generate as we embrace truth. The more we connect to the Holy Ghost through faithfulness, the more light we generate and radiate. The better our comprehension becomes. As Doctrine and Covenants 88:67 promises: "If your eye is single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be full of light, and there shall be no darkness in you."

Why He Believes

When Aaron returned to college after his mission, his mission president challenged him: maintain a 4.0 GPA. Nothing but A's. He completed Mesa Community College with excellence, then transferred to Arizona State and finished his electrical engineering degree with a perfect 4.0. He doesn't share this to boast. His own evaluation of effort hadn't changed between his first attempt and his second. But something had shifted. That shift was what yielding himself completely to the Lord had done. It was a complete reformation of how he navigated the world.

Today, Aaron is a Duke professor, a published researcher with over 100 papers and 50+ patents, and an IEEE fellow. But he's careful to acknowledge that his success was built on incredible research teams. The light that has guided his career, he says, comes from two core beliefs: God knows infinitely more about what you're doing than you ever could, and God cares infinitely about what you care about. When you come to Him with what you're wrestling with and rely on His collaborative aid, you tap into something transformative.

Aaron has made the choice to believe in Jesus Christ. He's done so despite questions and despite some family members choosing different paths. He keeps making that choice because of four reasons: unexplainable miracles that serve as witnesses of the Savior's reality; the inspiring example of faithful people who've shown him the joy of belief; the sensibility of the restored gospel, which resonates with him more than other worldviews; and his responsibility for those he influences, including his three children.

His story is a reminder that yielding to God isn't weakness. It's the path to having your capacity elevated in ways you couldn't have imagined on your own.

Key Takeaways

When you truly yield to God, your capacity elevates in ways that transcend your own effort or understanding. Aaron was convinced he had given everything as a college student and again when he returned, yet something fundamental had changed between those experiences. Unexplainable miracles serve as witnesses of the Savior's reality and His atoning grace in our lives, as the Georgia prophecy showed Aaron in ways that defied all logic. Physical light and spiritual light operate by identical principles, and both require you to receive and engage with them to understand what's around you. God cares infinitely about what you care about, and He collaborates with you to accomplish what matters most, whether in a lab, a business, or a family. And faith is a choice you make repeatedly, one of the few things you can willfully offer to God.

Thank you for reading this week's blog post inspired by the Why We Believe show. If you are interested in more stories like this, you can check out our other blog posts and episodes at WhyWeBelieve.com.

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