My name is Anthony Lopez. I am an undergraduate student attending Del Mar College, a small community college with a real passion for education. I am a full time student as well as a Supplement Instructor (SI) leader for Biology. I was nominated by my Biology and Biotechnology professors to represent my institution during the summer 2014 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) internship program. The nomination was based on my outstanding academic record, laboratory skill set, and performance in the biotechnology research program.
I am requesting your financial support to help defray the cost of attending the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE15). I plan to present my research conducted during the internship at LBNL. This talk, entitled “The Maintenance of the WeFold Gateway for CASP11″ is part of the mini symposium “Combining disciplines, techniques, faculty, and students to tackle protein folding”, organized by my mentor Dr. Silvia Crivelli. I will proudly represent my institution, which has given me this opportunity to learn about computational science and high-performance computing.
I feel that attending the SIAM Conference will further my professional development by giving me the chance to network with other scientist from different fields and allow me to present my research conducted during the internship. I have a passion for research. My goals are to enter a graduate program and have a career in research. I believe that attending this event will help me get a step closer to my goals. My parents are both immigrants from Mexico and have worked labor intense jobs to help with the financial cost of my higher education. I will be the first person in my family to achieve a college degree and I want to set an example for my younger siblings and fellow undergraduate students to show that obstacles are not impossible to overcome. Upon my return to Del Mar after the summer internship, I was given the chance to present my research to my fellow undergraduate students at my college; presenting at a conference of level of SIAM will be an award in itself. Read more about Anthony’s summer experience here.