The Central American - Caribbean bridge in astrophysics is a program created to mentor and train the next generation of students in astrophysics from that region. This was created because there is an enormous lack of resources and research opportunities for students interested in astrophysics. We hold monthly webinars and invite a speaker every month to talk about their personal life, academic obstacles, and research. The goal is for the students to feel represented, motivated, and capable, especially women in our group. More recently, we began a remote REU-like internship where students are able to complete a mini-project within a four-month period. Last Fall 2019, we had four students from Costa Rica and Honduras who worked with professors from Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. This Spring 2020, we are working with three students from Honduras, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. This opportunity brings research opportunities to these students and connects them to potential advisors and PhD programs.
In this series, we will highlight selected fellows. If you'd like to learn more about the program and ways you can get involved please visit https://cencabridgeastro.weebly.com/
My name’s Valeria Hurtado, and I was raised in Managua, Nicaragua until the age of 17. When I was young I wanted to be a vet-ballerina-scientist-actress-athlete. So far, I have become one of those things. When I was in Nicaragua, I knew I was interested in the natural world and in applying the scientific method, but back then I didn’t know that those things were physics. However, becoming a scientist in a country in constant socio-political and economic unrest would have been a luxury too unrealistic for me to afford. Besides, the scientists I saw in popular science channels were definitely not Nicaraguan or women - so I never really considered astronomy as a career. Fortunately, I was a stubborn, rebellious, and unaware 16-year-old who decided to apply to competitive schools to study physics.
In 2014, I enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) where I did my physics bachelors. There I got involved in the UCSC chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) and eventually became the president of it. As a leader of SPS, I held weekly meetings discussing mental health issues, the climate in physics, research opportunities and talks, and outreach activities. Under SPS and our local Women in Physics and Astronomy group, we also held a mentoring program between undergraduate and graduate students in both physics and astronomy. Besides our activities, I also raised over $4,000 for SPS for outreach activities, to create funds for students to attend conferences, and for GRE testing. After my SPS experience, I also co-created the physics department’s diversity and inclusion committee and contributed to several changes in the department.
Through SPS I met Dr. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz who eventually became my future advisor. He gave me the opportunity to fall in love with computational astrophysics, Gamma-Ray Bursts, and magnetohydrodynamics through my thesis project (soon to be published). After graduating in June 2019, I started a Post-Bac position at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) with Dr. Nicole Lloyd-Ronning as my advisor. At LANL I’m working on GRMHD simulations exploring how the beaming angle in GRBs depends on black hole spin and magnetic field magnitude and configuration. In the Fall, I will go on to complete my masters at the Fisk-Vanderbilt bridge program and then continue my education in a PhD program in astrophysics. I am also working towards increasing the visibility of the sciences in my country as well as helping those who are interested in pursuing science.
My dream is to continue doing computational astrophysics research and to one day build an academy of sciences either in the Central part of the continent or in the Caribbean serving marginalized communities and using anti-colonial principles. I want our people (Brown, Native, Black, LGBTQIA, and disabled folks) to teach, and to have the opportunity to follow their dreams and their curiosity, while providing a support system and the tools they may need for all their endeavors.
My instagram/twitter: marx_mallow
My name is Raquel Nohemy Mejía. I am from Santa Barbara, Honduras. I am 25 years old and I studied physics and chemical engineering at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH).
Currently, I had the opportunity to work on several investigations. I worked in the research line of high energy astrophysics as part of my Bachelor's dissertation in the study of binary x-ray stars and the research line of stellar evolution as part of remote internship program Central American-Caribbean bridge in the study of stellar granulation.
I am very happy to say that I'm one of those who direct the chapter of the Society of Women in the Space Exploration (SWISE) in Honduras. It is very important to me to belong to this group because it allows us to motivate more women and girls to study science in my country through scientific outreach events and workshops in schools.
My future plans are to earn a master's degree abroad in the extragalactic astrophysics research line. My dream since I was a child has been to travel to Germany and now that I discovered what I love, my greatest aspiration is to work as a researcher at the Max Planck astronomy institute in Germany. I would like to return to my country and contribute to advancements in science.
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