Mauricio Lopez who earned his Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics says he really values his education and felt he had to make the most of it to validate all of his mother’s hard work. He said his mother would hear students during commencement while working at a laundromat near campus and was anticipating she’d see her son at his ceremony.
The mentorship of physics professors like Dr. Wylie Ahmed and financial help from the department have helped make it possible for Mauricio to earn his undergraduate degree. He says he will continue through the master’s program at CSUF in Fall 2022.
Lopez has been recognized for his work ethic, in what Dr. Ahmed has said to be “stellar” throughout collaborating with him in the lab. Dr. Ahmed said he’s ecstatic to have Mauricio join the master’s program.
“We are lucky to have him in the program,” Dr. Ahmed said. “Since he already has so much experience as an undergraduate, I expect his MS degree to be very productive.”
He’s worked with Dr. Ahmed on three separate projects in the SLAM lab with similar themes of research on force measurement of microscopic swimmers. Dr. Ahmed said Mauricio had an early start in the lab and has shown much progress since – already having published three papers during his undergrad at CSUF.
“Mauricio’s work ethic is steller; he plans out his research, experiments, theory and analysis on his own very independently but also lets me know when there is a problem,” Dr. Ahmed said.
Dr. Ahmed said he’s had memorable experiences with Mauricio, like coding as a team late into the night at the Hackathon in Half Moon Bay or learning how to quantify pH change using spectrometers on a recent trip to Boston, MA.
Mauricio says he’s one of the researchers who spends most of their time in the SLAM Lab, where cross-collaboration occurs between him, Dr. Ahmed and Mathematics professor Dr. NIcholas Brubaker, Ph.D.
Mauricio said he’s had great experiences with professors in the mathematics and physics department – collaborating with them in the SLAM Lab and receiving much of their support. During the summer he continues to work with Dr. Ahmed in his research as he transitions into the masters program.
Aside from research, Mauricio has experience working with students from his alma mater, Valencia High School, as an instructional aide and Science Olympiad coach during his undergrad.
Mauricio’s research has been recognized while competing in the CSU Student Research Competition in April 2022. He won first place in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences undergraduate category for his research on studying the material properties of an active suspension of swimming bacteria.
Mauricio’s research found that E.coli suspension can generate energy and making it a viable energy source, would provide an opportunity for creating living material that could regenerate non-living material, like those used for repair of infrastructure.
Mauricio was also chosen by the department to win a system-wide CSU scholarship, where he wrote a personal statement explaining what he’d do with the scholarship fund and what it could help achieve. He says the financial support he’s received through the CSU system provides him reassurance of the path he’s built for himself.
“I’m thriving in what I’m doing and I’m excited with what I’m doing,” Lopez said.
Mauricio first became invested in physics through his high school friend and partner in the jazz group he was part of. Bill Terry, who’s currently in the mathematic’s Ph.D. program at UC Irvine, says remembers how he would work on a couple of projects with him. He said Mauricio was always open to trying different things, improvising, and had good intuition if they ever got stuck.
Terry says that despite some experiences he went through and worked against in his life as a DACA recipient and first-generation college student, he believes Mauricio has been able to accomplish more than most.
“I think he’s someone who has found something he loves to do, and decided that he will do whatever needs to be done to be able to do it. That’s definitely something worth learning by his example,” Terry said.
