Astronomy/Physics/Engineering

Carlos Gutierrez, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

Over the years, I’ve learned that the journey towards and through a Science and Engineering Career can have many twists and turns, and is typically not the simple path that you envisioned when you were younger. However, it can be far richer and more...

Alfonso Ortega, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. My parents migrated to the United States for better job opportunities so as to provide for their eleven children. My parents are from ranchitos (small ranches) outside of Durango, Mexico. My father was a teacher...

Emir Jose Macari, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

Coincidence? My Parents met in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as students at Louisiana State University. My father was from Mexico and came to the United States to study Chemical Engineering, and my mother, a Cuban-American, was studying Nutrition. This duality...

J.V. Martinez, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

To this day, living in Northern Arizona makes it difficult to ignore the manifestation of natural phenomena and not contemplate how such wonders come to be. I am one who has always been curious. However, my curiosity about nature did not blind me to...

J.D. Garcia, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

I was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I grew up in Alcalde, New Mexico. Alcalde is a very small village in northern New Mexico, which was started by Spanish speaking people hundreds of years ago. It is somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, and...

Ramon E. Lopez, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

My parents were from Puerto Rico. My father was an army officer surgeon and my mother was an elementary school teacher, and they always encouraged learning. My parents bought me a telescope for my tenth birthday. When the astronauts landed on the moon,...

Luz Miranda-Martinez, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

I distinctly remember being told by a non-Puerto Rican college professor that I shouldn’t continue with my graduate studies because I “was wasting the federal government’s money.” It stung me emotionally but I had the resolve to not let this...

Vicente Llamas, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

I was born and raised in Boyle Heights, a barrio in East Los Angeles. Although my Mexican-born parents had very little schooling, they instilled in my two sisters and me the importance of education. I attended Catholic schools throughout my elementary,...

Theresa Maldonado, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

Both my parents are Texans, but I was born at Travis Air Force Base, California, and grew up in California, North Dakota, Georgia, and Texas. My parents first language was Spanish, but they chose not to teach us Spanish so that we would never face discrimination...

George Castro, PhD

By TreNovember 27, 2017Comments Disabled

I grew up in east Los Angeles during the 1940’s and 1950’s, which was a very exciting time. The older generation’s stories of the difficult times they had endured inspired us to hope for something better for our generation. Our family slowly worked...