UTRGV senior presents at national physics conference

Physics senior Rudy Morales presented his research on and observations of exoplanets at a national physics conference hosted last month in Las Vegas by the American Physical Society. 

Morales’ interest in the stars and Earth-like planets began when he was a child. He and his family worked as farm hands in the north when he was young and, due to the low light pollution of the area, he was able to “see the stars really beautifully.” 

After getting an old telescope from a garage sale one day, Morales would use it to stare out into space, which he says was where he “fell in love with astronomy.”

In the summer of 2022, he took a 10-day trip to the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis along with eight other students and Physics and Astronomy Assistant Professor Juan P. Madrid, with whom he would develop a strong bond while they lived a “dorm life” of sorts during their stay. The trip also solidified for Morales his idea of “what it means to be an astronomer.”

Although Madrid informed him about the APS conference, Morales had already been gathering research and observations of variable stars and exoplanets at the Dr. Cristina V. Torres Memorial Astronomical Observatory at Resaca de la Palma State Park in Brownsville. 

Morales said being at the conference was fun and that it was “surreal” to think about how his passion could take him so far.

“It was really fun,” he said. “You get to meet a lot of people. … The most fun part was the presenting.”

In order to prepare for the conference, Morales stayed up late into the night “dry running” his presentation and having a friend ask him hard-hitting questions. 

“[I was] probably overprepared, if I’m being honest,” he said.

Using this experience as a stepping-stone, Morales hopes that this will help him in his pursuit of bringing happiness to other people. 

“Naturally, I’m very shy,” he said. “So, I think going to these conferences does help me open up, and know how to speak to people.” 

In the future, Morales would like to be a professor and provide a positive influence not only to the physics community as a whole, but also to individual students, as Madrid is to him. 

The morning before he was due to present, Morales misplaced his poster and was scrambling around Las Vegas trying to find somewhere he could get it printed out again. Having no one else to turn to, Morales called Madrid to tell him the situation. 

“I got this phone call from Vegas, and Rudy was all anxious, and I thought he was calling me from the Vegas City Jail or something!” Madrid said about the situation. 

He was able to help Morales locate a FedEx, which they both look back and laugh about now.

Though he is graduating this semester, Morales already has big plans in place for the next step of his academic journey. 

He has gone into a doctoral program at Baylor University, where he will be able to continue his passion as a research assistant to Barbara Castanheira, a senior physics lecturer at Baylor University. 

Castanheira told The Rider in a March 25 Zoom interview what Morales will be doing in the future and about her experience meeting him. 

“He came for a graduate student recruiting interview,” she said. “… They visit the campus. … There is a time allocated where they can choose to meet up with a few faculty, and I was one of his choice[s].”

Because of Morales’ grades and previous experience conducting research at the McDonald Observatory, Castanheira was interested in his abilities to “observe, reduce data, analyze data.” 

She received a National Science Foundation grant to study white dwarfs and Morales will be her research assistant. 

Castanheira said she not only thought he was a good fit, but with his previous experience and being a good student overall, she decided to offer Morales the research assistant position instead of being a teacher’s assistant and lab teacher for a year before becoming a RA. 

“He’s really a good fit for what I want him to do,” she said. “… He has the potential. I think he has what it takes.”