My Chemical Story: How growing up on the US-Mexico border made me a scientist

It’s easy to explain what I do. I’m a chemist who helps build new companies and research portfolios. But when people ask me where I’m from, it’s often difficult to explain. I’m a border child.

I was born in the US. My parents were born in Mexico. My dad always had the aspirations for his kids to be born in the US for better academic and professional opportunities. We lived in Mexico when I was young. But when I was 11, we moved to the US-Mexico border. My parents stayed on the Mexican side in Ciudad Juárez, and my siblings and I moved between small places on the US side, mostly in El Paso, Texas, and the Mexican side. We moved eight times in 8 years.

I never saw a Hispanic scientist or a first-generation scientist when I was growing up. My first introduction to science was in the seventh grade in a school in El Paso. My teacher, Mary Mojica, was extremely strict, extremely demanding. She introduced me to the scientific method.

We were required to develop a project for the science fair, and I did a project on omega-3 fish oils, investigating if plants would benefit from supplementation with the fatty acids. After scoring well at my school and in other rounds, I took my project all the way to the state level in Texas, where I placed fourth. I remember being so excited to be there. I felt privileged to be among so many motivated students. That’s when my interest in science really took off.

I didn’t have anyone to guide me down a scientific path, but I did have a communication teacher in high school who was Hispanic and held a PhD, and learning from him was inspiring. Joseph Villescas taught me to watch TV and movies differently—with a critical eye.

That’s about the time that Breaking Bad was on TV. I do not want to be like Walter White—I still think he’s probably the most evil character there is in TV history. But the show offered me a more direct experience of chemistry. It taught me that anyone could solve problems if they had the knowledge and that chemistry was applicable everywhere. That’s when I decided, okay, I’m going to pursue chemistry.

Problem-solving was part of my daily life. My parents don’t speak much English, and I had to navigate the systems of the US on my own. In high school, I worked as a waiter and crossed the border several times a week.

Ciudad Juárez was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world at that time. Because of drug-war-fueled violence, there were days when dozens of people were murdered. Everyone had a story of kidnapping or death, and I was no different: one of my best friends was killed when we were 15. It was like a war zone, but it was also our normal.

I received a Gates Millennium Scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when I was in high school, which came with requirements: the scholarship said that if I stayed in hard science, the scholarship would fund up to 10 years of education. That requirement is what kept me in the hard sciences. At the University of Texas at Austin, I was part of a separate program, called the Freshman Research Initiative, that introduced me to research, specifically nanoparticles. It was extremely fulfilling, and I eventually gave a presentation about the program to the university president, telling him what doing research meant to me.

Outside of coursework, I sought out jobs in science instead of returning to waiting tables. I worked in the science stock rooms, doing inventory, managing instruments, and helping with the logistics of lab courses. If I found a job to help support my parents back home, it was always within chemistry, just to immerse myself more.

My chemistry research initially focused on creating more biodegradable forms of plastic, and then I jumped to electrochemistry—that area felt the most applicable of all the types of chemistry, because the world runs on lithium-ion batteries and electronics.

When I arrived at graduate school at the University of Southern California, I met my first Hispanic science mentor—Vicente Galvan. He had been a first-generation student, like me, and was so relatable and supportive. He was also an electrochemistry wizard. I tried to be a sponge near him and absorb as much as possible. We worked on a project together to detect glucose concentrations in saliva and blood. The idea was to create sensors that are noninvasive, because people with diabetes have to pinch themselves multiple times per day. Creating salivary sensors was an advancement in the field.

In 2024 I graduated from USC with my doctorate and joined a start-up called Hydrosonics, developing advanced electrolyzer technology that utilizes acoustic waves to enhance green hydrogen production. Working there confirmed I did not want to continue on the academic route and instead preferred to pursue the entrepreneurship route. That start-up ran out of funding, but I’m still working to help other start-ups hone their pitches. I also help New Mexico State University find opportunities and write grants for their different colleges. I want to merge my interests in communication with my interest in chemistry—not only being a scientist but also deconstructing really complex chemistry concepts so that people can find them relatable, applicable, and worthy of funding.

The road I took would not be the same for students today. The Gates Millennium Scholarship stopped funding students in 2016 and was replaced by the Gates Scholarship, which supports undergraduate studies. It’s very unfortunate that diversity has become so politicized. In science, you want to have different points of view, and you want to have people from all sorts of different walks of life coming to science. That way, they can provide different solutions to problems. Having funding for 10 years set me on a path, and the steps were shown to me. I don’t know of any scholarships that last 10 years these days. I was born at the right time, when this scholarship was happening, and I’m grateful that the people at the Gates Foundation found something interesting in my story.

I didn’t think I’d end up as a writer, an entrepreneur, and a chemist, but my dad always pushed education strongly. His prompting is one of the principal reasons why we came to the US. When I saw opportunities, I took them, and I walked the road as it was forming before me. I didn’t necessarily plan to become a scientist. I just followed the path of small stepping stones that guided me there.

As told to Katharine Gammon, special to C&EN. Views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of C&EN or ACS.

My Chemical Story highlights personal stories from people in and around the chemistry enterprise. To share how your life in chemistry has influenced your everyday life—or the reverse—please contact C&EN editor Chris Gorski ([email protected]). You can also reach us securely at [email protected].