RICARDO PABLO PEDRO

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MIT

Age: 27

Heritage: Mexican

 

Notable Accomplishments:

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• The Mexican National Youth Award 2017

• Transcender Fellowship award 2018

• Jorge Matute Remus Award

• Unitec Blue Fellowship ward at MIT

 

Ricardo Pablo Pedro got his PhD in the Chemistry department at MIT; at the time he was the only indigenous Mexican at the school. He was born in la Mina, Tuxtepec, a small village located in Oaxaca, Mexico.

 

When he was a child, he had to migrate to Morelos to continue with his primary, middle, and high school. He would eventually move to Mexico City for his undergrad where he earned his bachelor’s in chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2012.

 

In his undergraduate school, he had opportunities to access advanced computer tools and learned many advanced research methods, making him even more attracted to the field of the theoretical Chemistry.

 

Today, Ricardo is studying theoretical chemistry at MIT with the objective of creating the next generation of computer processors with smaller parts and faster chips.

 

In Ricardo's free time he likes to motivate young students to pursue their dreams in science.

 

“I like to tell them that it doesn’t matter where you are from,” he says. “For me, education has been the key to improving my life and I try to impart that on others.”