Jesus Perez

Biography

Born and raised in the small town of San Marcos California it has been an incredible journey attending university in my backyard. Choosing to major in physics was not my original plan. I figured I would be able to transfer over to engineering. However, after visiting the career center I learned that with a physics degree I would be able to do anything I wanted. So then I figured okay, “I’ll major in physics, but work in engineering”. Then after my second year in college I received an internship to conduct undergraduate research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. That was the life changing experience I needed. After a successful semester in Princeton I returned to my home university and immediately asked a professor to join his lab. In the span of a couple months I went from shadowing the senior student to carrying my own weight and working on my own project. Since conducting research, I have presented my work at local and national conferences. My research experience spans plasma physics, condense matter physics, and physics education. Upon graduating I plan to pursue a PhD in plasma physics or condensed matter. My research mentors have influenced my career path from wanting to work in industry to now wanting to stay in academia and be an educator just like them.

Physics without a doubt is my greatest passion, but I know there is more to life. If I ever have the time I try to stay busy with either hiking, running, mountain biking, cycling, or training boxing and jiujitsu. I also really enjoy exploring new recipes and traveling to new places. I enjoy reading books and watching movies as well and I love when I can just sleep in on a Saturday morning and wake up to breakfast on the grass outside. I would say I have too many hobbies that I cannot commit to all of them, but that is because I always seek to place myself in new experiences and places, that way I constantly continue to learn.