Building a Space for Academic Rigor and Empathy: Tracing the Origin of a Chemist with Jesús Velázquez
Jesús Velázquez remembers the moment he got hooked on education. He was in sixth grade and his school in Juncos, Puerto Rico, was hosting a science fair.
For his project, Velázquez, who split his youth between living in Puerto Rico and the Bronx in New York City, wanted to build a model of the human circulatory system. Working with his mother, he crafted a display using IV tubing to represent veins and Kool-Aid to represent blood. A car battery powered the model, pumping the Kool-Aid as Velázquez presented his project.
"I feel like that was the first time that I became really curious," recalled Velázquez. "And I fell in love with the fact that I could be that person to help elucidate and clarify a scientific message or concept."
What began at that science fair decades ago started Velázquez on a path to an illustrious career in the sciences.
As a UC Davis associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the College of Letters and Science and faculty member in the chemical engineering and materials science and engineering graduate programs and Energy Graduate Group, Velázquez employs his chemistry expertise to synthesize materials useful for environmental remediation, transforming carbon dioxide-based waste streams, and energy conversion and storage. He's received numerous accolades for both his research and teaching. Most recently, he was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Chemistry, won the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and made Chemical Engineering & News' Talented Twelve list, among many other awards and honors.
With his sights set on transforming the world for the better through chemistry, Velázquez, ever humble, never fails to thank the family members and academic mentors who guided his life path. Their imprint echoes into today, informing how he mentors and teaches.