Highlight Questions

What year are you in?

I'm in my 5th year.

What group are you in?

I'm a part of Annika Peter's research group.

Where are you from?

I was born in Quito, Ecuador and raised between Quito and Miami, FL.

Describe your research in 200 words or fewer.

I study dwarf galaxies and their satellite systems to try to understand how these systems formed and evolved through time. By digging through big data sets from suveys such as the COSMOS survey and the Dark Energy Survey (DES), I try to visually and statistically find satellite galaxy systems that are associated with different host dwarf galaxies. This allows us to learn about the different environments these galaxies are in and how they can affect their properties and evolution.

What have you done in physics that you are most proud of?

I finished my first first-author paper a couple of months ago. It took a long time to iron out all the details and submit it, but once it was done I was SO happy!

What have you done outside of physics that you are most proud of?

Learn to perform acrobatics on aerial silks. I'm still a beginner, but being able to hang in the air from a piece of fabric is so much fun.

What are your future goals?

I'd like to graduate sometime soon and get a space industry job since I love science-related work. Also, I would love to keep traveling; Asia is next on my bucket list so I'm hoping we can all go back to normal in the near future.