Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and the guidance of a good mentor can help you see more opportunities than you imagined. Until he participated in the Sustainable Research Pathways High-Performance Computing (HPC) program in the summer of 2022, Felix Rojas did not know he could pursue his passion for quantum chemistry in a more direct manner.
A Masters student in the Mathematics Department at San Francisco State University, Felix had done his undergraduate work in Venezuela. “There wasn’t a specific program for quantum chemistry there,” he says. “I thought the only way to get into quantum chemistry was through math, but through SRP, I realized I could get a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry. SRP has opened so many options that I didn’t know existed.”
Sustainable Research Pathways (SRP) is a comprehensive program designed to connect U.S. researchers and project leaders with students and faculty from all across the U.S. and its territories to encourage lasting collaborations, jump start careers, and build innovative workplace environments. That summer, Felix was paired with Theresa Windus, Senior Scientist at Ames National Laboratory and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University. Over the summer, they worked on extreme scale computational chemistry with NWChemEx, looking for more efficient ways to model chemical transformations to enable chemists to better analyze reactivity.
“When a chemist’s intuition about a possible reaction doesn’t work, the method that Felix programmed is great, particularly if a chemist needs to know more about a surface,” says Professor Windus. “We are excited because, when we finalize this, anyone who uses NWChemEx will have access to it.”
For Felix, it was his first introduction to HPC, to an internship with a national lab, and to working with a researcher like Professor Windus, who understands his passion for quantum chemistry. “It was amazing. She was a great mentor, and the networking within the lab was wonderful,” says Felix. “Those interactions with the students and researchers were really important.”
It was not only Felix, however, who benefitted. “It was really valuable to have Felix with us. He asks great questions, and it is great to have a different viewpoint coming into the lab,” says Professor Windus. “It broadens what we can do.”
Because of his SRP experience, Felix has submitted an abstract for the first California State University-wide conference in mathematics. He is also applying to Ph.D. programs in both Mathematics and Quantum Chemistry, including at Iowa State University, where he could pursue both a Ph.D. in Quantum Chemistry and a major in Applied Mathematics.
“I can say that at the beginning of this year, I was somebody totally different,” says Felix. “This experience was life-changing for me. Thank you.”