Home Institution: New Mexico State University
Research Project: Next generation neutrino detectors
UW Mentor(s): Nikolai Tolich

Q: What are your physics/science interests?
A: My science interests in general tend to span pretty much every field of science, everything from paleontology, zoology, volcanology, and most of the other -ologies you can think of. Specifically in physics I am interested in fundamental particles and interactions as well as astrophysics, I tend to enjoy math so I am usually more inclined towards the theoretical side of these fields.

Q: What are your other interests?
A: Aside from trying to absorb everything school and Wikipedia have to offer me, I am a huge fan of games and you can often find me in the SPS room playing late night games of RISK or having Texas hold'em tournaments.

Q: What would you like to do after college?
A: After college I'm planning on going for a doctorate after which I want to get a job in research, not sure specifically what or where yet.

Q: Tell us one strange but interesting fact about yourself.
A: I am inordinately fond of everything spicy, I am constantly pursuing ever hotter foods with a fervor reminiscent of a junkie looking for opiates.

Q: What first sparked your interest in Physics?
A: My interest in physics was first sparked when I got bored back in high school and decided to skip class and hang out in the library where I ran across a couple books in physics, a couple of Hawking's books and Einstein's book on relativity. Got a couple pages into them and was pretty interested, I hadn't decided on a major yet for college so I figured I might as well try physics and see how it would go. A semester in and I was hooked and its just gotten more interesting (albeit harder) from there.

Q: If you could have any pet what would it be?
A: I would want a domesticated Velociraptor, primarily because it would be fun but also because it would mean that I could live wherever I want and still have my house be virtually burglar-proof

Q: If you had a free month and unlimited funds, how would you spend your time?
A: I would wake myself up every morning by going sky diving, eat out wherever I wanted whenever I got hungry, and pretty much indulge every whim that occurred to me. I would definitely take a commercial flight into space at some point as well as do some traveling.