My first paper was https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9512055v1 which eventually got published in Physical Review E but the abstract for a talk I gave at the March Meeting of the APS caught the eye of a reporter at Science News so I had the cover story one week, I think before the real publication.

The magazine printed a photo I took of Ron Maimon crumpling paper on the sofa of my office with an apparatus that I invented. Ron never completed his PhD on string theory but he eventually became a notorious 9/11 "truther" and conspiracy theorist.