Walter Riquelme is a PhD student at the Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT) in Madrid, Spain, and originally from Chile. He is part of the Large Scale Structure working group and his primary research is on Primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG). The goal of this research is to look for signals of non-Gaussian initial conditions generated in the very early universe (possibly during the epoch of Cosmic Inflation) by using the position correlations of galaxies or other tracers of dark matter. This could give us hints about how the initial seeds of the universe were produced.
We asked Walter a few questions. Here’s what he had to say:
What sparked your interest in Physics/Astronomy/Cosmology?
My interest in Physics started around 2012. Motivated by the discovery of the Higgs boson, I started to watch documentaries and read outreach scientific articles on particle physics. Then by the end of my undergrad, I moved my interests to Cosmic Inflation, an area of Cosmology that uses techniques from particle physics. That is when my love for Cosmology, both observational and theoretical, began.
What motivates or inspires you?
For me, it is motivating to see other people being really good in their own areas, with this being arts, music, physics, or others. Whenever I’m stuck with ideas, seeing them talk and explain about their interest really motivates me to keep trying and work harder.
As for inspiration, I usually rely on the classics. Short walks with good music and some occasional beer.
If you weren’t a scientist, what would your dream job be?
I’d probably be in music production or something related. I’ve been briefly involved in that kind of work, and I found it really entertaining.
What in physics/astronomy are you most excited about in the next 10 years?
We are in a really interesting time for astronomy and physics, with gravitational waves being observable and high precision cosmological surveys in action. In the near future, we will have data coming from the next generation galaxy surveys (such as DES Y6, LSST, DESI and EUCLID), so I’m really excited to see what will they tell us about the secrets of the universe.
Any advice for aspiring scientists?
When doing physics, try to not lose the big picture side of your work. Sometimes you get caught up in small and tedious things that can spoil your interest in working. For those cases, I found it really useful to just think about the implications of your work in a bigger picture to gain back confidence and interest.