I am an Assistant Professor in Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
After starting my B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Hermosillo in México, I transferred to the University of Arizona where I indulged in energy-related research by working with Prof. Peiwen "Perry" Li on PEM Fuel Cells, and Prof. Rocco Fazzolari on Solar Photovoltaics. I then moved to the east coast and obtained both my M.Sc. and Ph.D. at MIT working with Prof. Tonio Buonassisi in the Photovoltaics Research Laboratory, studying defects in solar cells and their impact on electrical conversion efficiency. During my studies at MIT, I took a summer off and worked in Mexico's Secretaría de Energía (Energy Secretariat), namely in the Energy Sustainability Fund (FSE) and the Energy Transition and Sustainable Use of Energy Fund (FOTEASE). My passion for topics lying at the intersection of technology, policy, and energy, was amplified that summer. As a postdoc (and later as a Professional Researcher) at UC Berkeley, I began studying energy systems and equitable renewable energy integration mechanisms in collaboration with Prof. Dan Kammen, and Dr. Carl Blumstein. Also, given the growing interdependence of transportation and energy systems, this intersection became a recent focus of my work, too. |