About Oswaldo Vazquez

Oswaldo Vazquez was born in Los Angeles, California to Mexican immigrants seeking a better life. However, low wages and a fear of deportation forced Oswaldo’s family to relocate to Motul, a small town in the southern region of México. His childhood and early teens were spent feeding his grandmother’s chickens, playing soccer, and celebrating Mayan festivities such as Hanal Pixán. Yet he yearned for educational opportunities that were unavailable in Motul. This led him back to Los Angeles at age thirteen, where he lived with his aunt.

During high school, Oswaldo became interested in questions about the nature of reality and existence—but Oswaldo was unaware of how these subjects were formally studied or of any programs that guided youth towards a career in fundamental science. After consulting online forums and YouTube videos, he discovered that mathematics was a way to put order and beauty into an understanding of the universe. He was determined to learn more despite his school only offering one course in geometry and two in algebra. He then took trigonometry and precalculus at his local community college and self-studied calculus before enrolling at Harvard University as a first-generation student.

Oswaldo’s first research experience was under the tutelage of Professor Carlos Argüelles, where he was privileged to refine TauRunner, a Python simulator for the propagation of ultra-high-energy neutrinos. Oswaldo also worked with Professor Sarah Wellons for a summer as part of Northwestern’s CIERA Research Experience for Undergraduates. There, he studied dark matter properties of the most extreme galaxies in the early universe via the IllustrisTNG software. Moreover, he has studied the global continuation of solutions to the Einstein equations with Professor Puskar Mondal.

Outside of research, Oswaldo strives to make STEM welcoming to all and improve its access to low-income communities. He was part of the Inclusion Committee at Harvard’s Society of Physics Students, a physics instructor for the Pre-College Research Institute nonprofit, and a Tutor-Counselor for BIPOC high schoolers enrolled in the Brandeis Upward Bound program.

Oswaldo graduated from Harvard College in 2023 with a degree in mathematics with honors. In the fall of 2024, Oswaldo enrolled at Northeastern University to pursue a PhD in physics and is working with Professor Jonathan Weitsman on questions at the intersection of geometry, topology, and quantum field theory. Additionally, he is involved in Bridge to Calculus, a math outreach program for Boston Public Schools students.