Prize Recipient

Alejandro Rodriguez

Background:

I came to the United States six years ago from Cuba. I discover physics and mathematics my sophomore year in high school while enrolled in a computer science course in C++. I think I have actually taken up all of the courses the school has to offer, including AP Physics C, AP Physics B and the lower level physics courses. Because of the lack of physics curriculum in the school, I enrolled in Florida International University, where since then I have aced all of he courses, such as Electromagnetism, Multivariable Calculus and Modern Physics (quantum physics).

The summer before my senior year, I was accepted into a summer program at MIT, among 63 other individuals from all over the country. At the end of the summer, I received an award for Top Student in Advance Physics. I enjoy studying physics in my free time. About nine months ago, just when I had received the presidential scholarship from Caltech, I met up with a physics professor who was a friend of my step-dad. Since then, he and I have been studying higher level physics and math such as General Relativity, Differential Geometry, Quantum Physics and the excellent Landau book on: The Classical Theory of Fields.

Studying physics has been an exhilarating experience for me. This year, I finished high school as the co-valedictorian, and was accepted into Princeton, Caltech and MIT. I stand firm when I say that my love for analytical thought and physics has been the most important contributor in my successes in high school. I hope that throughout my future, I will be as inquisitive and physics as interesting as it has been for these years. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I will be pursuing a double major in Mathematics and Physics as well as a minor Philosophy, wherein from there I want to pursue a PhD in, off course: PHYSICS!