Prize Recipient

Ana Berrizbeitia

Background:

My name is Ana Berrizbeitia. Im 19 years old and have been living in Texas for the past 4 years of my life. Im from Venezuela but have lived in several places in the world, such as Argentina, Mexico, Colorado, Houston, Austin, and Venezuela where Ive encountered all kinds of different experiences  good and bad. One thing that has always traveled with me, however, is my passion for math. My father is a Mathematician and a professor at probably the best public university of Venezuela. Hes always enjoyed teaching me math and so I had the tendency to know things beforehand in class. Ever since I can remember, math has been a rather large part of my life, but it wasnt until my junior year in high school that I discovered the most beautiful way to fit math in with life: physics. I had a physics teacher who inspired me to read physics books, watch movies, and read the newspaper in hopes of a new amazing discovery - this even led me to want to pursue it as a major in college. I am currently in my second year of college at the University of Texas at Austin double majoring in math and physics. I hope to continue my studies after I finish my undergraduate degree; perhaps get a Master's or a PhD, and hopefully even go to MIT. Im working very hard to achieve my goal, and I feel very fortunate for all the help Ive received.