CREATIVE connections HMC ALUMNI PROFILE PHYSICS GRADUATE, HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE
Impressive fact about Rocío Ruelas: she’s in a Ph.D. program in applied mathematics at Cornell (where it snows). Even more impressive fact: she paints. And she makes a mean potato salad. And she graduated from Mudd with a concentration in political studies. She is, in other words, not a mad genius but a three- dimensional human being. Coincidence? Probably not.
ON THE USES OF POTATO SALAD
“I joined the National Society of Black Engineers. I’m not black or an engineer, but I connected with people there. We’ve put a lot of effort into increasing diversity at Mudd. We hold diversity forums, sponsor events that share people’s cultures. We had a cook-off where we invited people to cook a dish with a member of the club. My team made potato salad. We all got together and ate this huge meal and talked about food, which is also a way to talk about culture.”
WHY PEOPLE KEPT TELLING HER TO GET USED TO SNOW “I’m in graduate school in applied mathematics at Cornell. It was snowing when I first visited—so, yeah, I know. Applied math is close to theoretical physics, which is what I like. It’s a way to play with assumptions and make connections between ideas. It’s creative, but in a very rigorous framework.”
A JUNO REFERENCE! “For my Clinic project we worked for the Southwest Research Institute, which developed part of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. We made a tool that analyzed Jupiter’s aurora. When we know more about Jupiter’s formation, then we know more about star formation and planet formation and how Earth was formed. That feels useful. That feels good.”
ROCíO RUELAS ’08
PH.D. STUDENT APPLIED MATHEMATICS CORNELL UNIVERSITY
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WHY, OH WHY, SHE CHOSE MUDD “One big reason is we’re required to do a concentration in the humanities. So we’re all science geeks, and we understand crazy math jokes, but we’re interested in everything else—sports, philosophy, art. And we’ll take some of those humanities classes at the other Claremont Colleges, which is a chance to learn from people who think in totally different ways.”
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