Prize Recipient

Ricardo Enrique Rojas

Background:

I am Ricardo Rojas, a student who has been studying Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the past two years. After two years of studying physics, I still do not know what I shall do with the physical knowledge I have gained. Because of its emphasis on mathematics, theoretical physics intrigues me, but I do not know what branch of physics I wish to study or work in for a career. I would like to enter into a career that consists of mostly theoretical physics and focuses upon solving a problem that has relatively immediate, practical applications, such as discovering some new formula, substance or process that permits people to do something that they could not do before.

During the summer of 2000, I shall be working in the University of Maryland at College Park as an assistant to a theoretical physicist. Our job will be to mathematically analyze plasmas on computers. The results of this research will be used in the development of fusion power.