This Sophomore Is Using His Passion For Physics And Math To Help Others
Víctor González discovered his passion for physics and mathematics in the fourth grade.
But in Cuba, he struggled to find resources to feed his curiosity.
However, a laptop he was gifted at the age of nine was a game changer.
“I started looking at Wikipedia for articles about math and scientists like Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and this world of physics,” González said. “I [said,] ‘Oh, this is really cool. I would like to investigate more.’”
Today, González—a sophomore studying mathematics in the Honors College at Kendall Campus—is researching the topics that captivated him as a child.
On Dec. 6, the 21-year-old co-published his third scholarly research paper entitled, Localization of unique factorization semidomains.
The 11-page paper, featured in Cornell University’s arXiv research platform, was completed under the guidance of Harold Polo, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Irvine.
In the last two years, González has co-published On the ascent of almost and quasi-atomicity to monoid semidomains and On the atomicity of power monoids of Puiseux monoids. The latter is featured in the International Journal of Algebra and Computation.
“It’s truly impressive to see how much Víctor is already contributing to the mathematical community at such a young age,” Polo said.
González grew up participating in olympiads in Cuba that required him to solve complex math and physics problems.
“I [would] say, ‘Oh, my God, I love to do these, to go deep into questions and just think about [them,]” he recalls.
During high school, González, who attended Instituto Preuniversitario Vocacional de Ciencias Exactas Vladímir Ilich Lenin, participated in the country’s annual National Knowledge Contest twice.
Despite lacking resources to prepare for the physics competition the first time, he made due—with translated Russian textbooks—winning a gold medal both years.
González also participated in the Iberoamerican Physics Olympics in El Salvador, where he earned a silver medal, and the Iranian Geometry Olympiad, which was held virtually during the pandemic.
In August of 2022, the aspiring mathematician immigrated to the United States.
“It was a very, very hard decision…” González recalls. “I was really worried to start again, [in] a new country [where] I didn’t know the language, how things work[ed], and I didn’t want to leave my mom and my grandma alone.”
However, his desire to provide a better life for his mom and grandmother pushed him to persevere.
Prior to leaving Cuba, González’s former professor connected him with a mentee, Felix Gotti, a postdoctoral fellow and research coordinator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After witnessing the young man’s interest in mathematics, Gotti introduced him to CrowdMath—a research program through MIT that has allowed him to co-publish his three research papers.
At Miami Dade College, González is using his love for physics and mathematics to help his peers.
He serves as a founding member of Math4U—a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure everyone, especially immigrant students, have access to math tutoring—and tutors first-year Honors College students at Eduardo J. Padrón Campus.
“I would describe Víctor as already a success story,” said Maria Diaz-Medina, an academic advisor from the World Languages Department who met González last January. “Despite all his academic and personal accomplishments at such an early age, Víctor is a very humble person and is very committed to giving back to the community.”
González is slated to graduate with an associate’s of arts degree in mathematics from MDC this spring. He aspires to transfer to MIT and obtain a doctoral degree in mathematics.
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