Jaime Alvarez : Goldwater Scholarship
Jaime Alvarez (’26, Physics) is interested in gravitational wave physics, quantum optics, and precision instrumentation. While at Fullerton College, Jaime completed research projects at the University of Southern California (USC) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While at USC, Jaime worked with Dr. Kris Pardo using astrometric techniques to set constraints on the chirp mass and distance of supermassive black hole binaries. He later spent a summer in the LIGO lab at MIT, working with Dr. Nergis Mavalvala and Dr. Eric Oelker on the GRAVITES project, where he helped develop and build a laser stabilization system for noise reduction. Now after transferring to Berkeley, he is beginning research with Dr. Victoria Xu, with plans to focus on improving the LIGO detectors through improved noise modeling techniques and squeezed light sources. Jaime hopes to pursue his PhD in Physics and work on demystifying academic careers for others in underserved communities.
