Luis Velarde Awarded University of California's Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship

By Mari N. Jensen, College of Science
May 8, 2008

Luis A. Velarde, a doctoral candidate in The University of Arizona's department of chemistry, has been awarded a University of California's Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship in Mathematics, Engineering, and Physical Sciences. Only four such fellowships were awarded this year.

The prestigious fellowship recognizes Velarde's excellence in doctoral-level research and academic achievement, and his record of mentoring and outreach activities that promote access and opportunity in higher education.

He will use the fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research with the noted chemist Alec Wodtke, a professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

"It's an honor and also a responsibility to be a role model and to encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue math and science careers," said Velarde, a native of Chihuahua City, Mexico.

He has been involved in activities to encourage and help students pursue math and science since college. In Tucson, he was an instructor in InnoWorks, a summer program in science and engineering for underprivileged junior high school students.

Velarde's research uses photoelectron imaging and lasers to figure out how chemical reactions happen at the level of single molecules and at the level of clusters of up to 40 molecules. He will receive his doctorate in chemistry from the UA on May 17, 2008.

Applications of the research include being able to control chemical reactions more precisely, he said.

"The future goal would be to use lasers to control how a chemical reaction happens," he said. "Instead of using microscopic variables like temperature or pressure, one could use something more precise like lasers and quantum states."

He did his dissertation research at the UA in the laboratory of Andrei Sanov, a UA associate professor of chemistry. The title of Velarde's dissertation is, "Photoinitiated Dynamics of Cluster Anions via Photoelectron Imaging and Photofragment Mass Spectrometry."

"I think a big part of my success is having a good advisor. I'm thankful to have the opportunity to work with Andrei Sanov," Velarde said. "Andrei is a wonderful advisor. His enthusiasm keeps me motivated."

Velarde suggests that graduate students make sure to connect to parts of the university outside their department or lab. He said, "I recommend that students get involved in activities within the university and outside the university."

His service to the UA and his field include serving as a representative to the Associate Graduate Council of the UA's College of Science, UA's Chemistry Recruiting Committee and Graduate Program Committees and being a judge of undergraduate posters at the Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in Tucson in 2006.

In addition to the fellowship, his awards and honors include being named 2008 Outstanding Hispanic Graduate Student by the UA Hispanic Alumni Association, the Outstanding Student Poster award from the physical division of the American Chemical Society in 2006, an UA Imaging Fellowship, and a Service Award and a Mid-Career Award from the UA's department of chemistry.

Velarde earned a master's degree in physics in 2001 from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro and a bachelor's degree in physics engineering in 1998 from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico.

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