| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | When I was 8 years old, my sister, my cousin, and I used to play at the tree house. We would go through the forest looking for insects and collect them. Although we were only children, we felt we were in a movie with us being the main characters, running from the tree house to the forest, in a competition to collect the most insects. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I identify most with my father's sister. She was my role model because she has always demonstrated excitement for science. Thus, I started my career in physics in great part because of her encouragement towards my academic goals. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I love it when people surprise me. I usually do not expect a specific character trait from someone. Though being adventurous is a plus, I always enjoy this attitude from new people since getting to know new places with new people is always interesting. Being responsible is another trait that I admire, and I would respect someone who does demonstrate that. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | When I was starting to study English as a second language, I used words that were not the proper ones (I still do that sometimes). Once, in my English class, I was asked by the professor to read my sentence to the class, I used the word "improve" when I meant to say "improvise". I know they are different words, but at the time I only had been living in the US for one week with almost zero knowledge of English vocabulary. I am still learning; however, I feel I write and read better now. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I would love to travel to the Moon, or to another planet if space travel was an option. If we mean traveling to other countries or places on the Earth, I would love to visit Argentina, Chile, and Europe. I would visit South America to meet my friends in person, and to obviously explore and enjoy a different culture, views, and perspectives. I would enjoy traveling to Europe to visit several countries, especially countries that contain important pieces of scientific history. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I would love to pass on the beauty of physics to my children, and how it tries to describe the reality in which we live. Also, I would share my experiences in life, and knowledge that may awaken curiosity in them to pursue their own goals. Finally, I would try my best to educate them in how to overcome the obstacles they encounter and help them if necessary. |
