Prize Recipient

Daniel Garcia

Background:

I am from Barrington, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago and currently beginning my junior year in the physics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. My interest in science goes back further than I can remember. Whether it was biology, chemistry, physics, or engineering, I wanted to read whatever I could find. My perspectives began to change when I read Gravitation and Spacetime, a popular book by John Wheeler. I was caught up in the enthusiasm and sense of beauty he found not just in the phenomenon of gravity, but the universe as a whole, an enthusiasm I still have. Still it wasn't until I took an AP Physics C class my senior year in high school that I knew, physics would be the focus of my future career.

When I arrived at MIT, I considered myself to be a prospective engineer. Yet, no matter what area of engineering interested me, it was always the physics of the field that attracted me the most. Knowing only how things worked wasn't enough; I wanted to know why things worked. Finally, it became clear for me, I would be a physicist.

I intend to continue on to graduate school to get my doctorate. Currently, I lean towards an experimental physics field, possibly solid-state or nuclear physics. But experience tells me to keep an open mind. Outside of classes, I enjoy teaching and tutoring both physics and mathematics, trying to share the excitement I have with others.