Prize Recipient

Pedro Urquidez

Background:

Originally, I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was born in Albuquerque, then moved to Hobbs, and finally back to Albuquerque. I came to appreciate Physics thanks to reading articles about Einstein, Newton, and Hawking. In addition, I became fascinated with string theory, electricity, planets, stars, and galaxies. I have always been interested in the unknown and the unusual of the universe.

I would like to be at the forefront of modern science and develop exciting new space technology in the areas of crafts, propulsion, energy, vehicles, etc. I like to see old familiar things in exciting innovative ways. In the future, I plan to work with NASA, the Department of Energy, or an engineering firm and apply my new skills.

I will be attending New Mexico Tech and majoring in Physics with an Astrophysics option. I am thinking about getting a PhD in Astrophysics. When I am free, I enjoy reading Scientific American and Popular Science magazines as well as Sci-Fi novels and watching Sci-Fi movies.

This past year, in Astrophysics class I learned about stellar evolution that is star birth and death and how the heavy elements are formed. Cosmology is one of those topics in Astronomy that seems to have no right or wrong answer. I also got highly interested in learning about dark matter, antimatter, quasars, black holes, warpature of space-time, time, quantum mechanics and special relativity. Astrophysics is what I would call a hybrid science, astronomy and physics, with no fine line to distinguish the two.