Etienne Isreal Palos

I am a Chicano student pursuing a PhD in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry at UC San Diego. I was born in San Diego, but was raised on both sides of the Mexico-United States border. It was in Mexico where it became clear that science was my vocation, during a workshop where I learned how photonics and quantum computation could revolutionize technology. Shortly after, I left my home to study Nanotechnology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). 

During my time at UNAM, I had the fortune of engaging in experimental and theoretical research from early on. My theoretical trajectory began in 2018, when I came to UCSD as a STARS scholar, and worked in the lab of Dr. Yuen-Zhou in the emerging field of polariton chemistry. That fall I returned to UNAM and joined the Virtual Materials Modeling Lab (LVMM). Since then, I have gained experience in materials theory through participation in several projects. Under the supervision of Dr. Guerrero-Sánchez, I completed my thesis on the computational quantum-mechanical modeling of novel ternary transition metal chalcogenides for electronic and spintronic applications.

At UC San Diego, I will be working at the interface between quantum dynamics, statistical mechanics and computer science in the research group of Prof. Francesco Paesani. During my PhD, I hope to develop new models for many-body interactions to predict the behaviour and properties of complex molecular systems.