{"id":212709,"date":"2024-04-17T22:20:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T02:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=212709"},"modified":"2024-04-18T10:17:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T14:17:56","slug":"jonathan-mercedes-feliz-24-ph-d-college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/04\/jonathan-mercedes-feliz-24-ph-d-college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Mercedes Feliz ’24 Ph.D., College of Liberal Arts and Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn has allowed Jonathan Mercedes Feliz \u201924 Ph.D. to delve deep into his love of astrophysics. Originally from Manhattan, the graduating Ph.D. student reflects on his involvement with the international group Astronomy on Tap, as well as outreach to local elementary schools with the UConn Department of Physics.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Why did you choose to go to UConn?<\/strong>
\nI applied and came here because the astrophysics program was just starting a year or two before I applied, so it seemed like an interesting time to join and be a part of a new subfield being built at UConn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What drew you to your field of study?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve always liked math and science a lot. In terms of physics, it\u2019s funny because I used to watch \u201cBill Nye the Science Guy\u201d and the History Channel. Seeing the universe on these programs and learning about space was cool, and then I started doing more physics in undergrad and got into research. It was exciting to work on simulations and how to build my own little mini universes.<\/p>\n

Did you have a favorite professor or class?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My advisor, Assistant Professor of Physics Daniel Angl\u00e9s-Alc\u00e1zar<\/a>, has been super helpful in terms of building me up to be a research scientist and serving as a mentor to me.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

What activities were you involved in as a student?<\/strong>
\nLately, I\u2019ve been working in the department to do outreach. Recently, second graders from Mansfield Elementary School came to UConn, and I was a part of that. I also helped with the solar eclipse coverage here at UConn which was super fun and exciting. I\u2019ve been a part of Astronomy on Tap, which is relatively new to Storrs, but they host astronomy-themed talks and trivia.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s one thing that surprised you about UConn?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know if there was anything specific to UConn that surprised me, but the graduate school experience was much different than I expected. I was mostly surprised that the astro-side has been such a helpful community and has helped me envision a future in what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

What was it like starting college during the pandemic?<\/strong>
\nI came in the \u201cbefore time\u201d \u2014 I started in August 2018 and am now in my sixth year. The pandemic happened during my last semester of taking classes. That was tough because I was essentially doing some of the hardest classes that I\u2019ve ever had to take basically alone.<\/p>\n

What are your plans for after graduation \/ receiving your degree?<\/strong>
\nMy plan is to hopefully start a post-doc position and continue my research.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

How has UConn prepared you for the next chapter in life?<\/strong>
\nI definitely feel prepared in the sense of having the necessary skills to apply for positions. I\u2019ve learned how to promote myself and advertise my skillset.<\/p>\n

Any advice for incoming students?<\/strong>
\nWhen you come in, try to really find your network or your close-knit community. Doing anything alone is difficult but having that support is helpful and useful.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s one thing everyone should do during their time at UConn?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nGo to a game!<\/p>\n

What will always make you think of UConn?<\/strong>
\nHops 44, the vibes, being there hanging out with friends, and Astronomy on Tap, especially during March Madness every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Mercedes Feliz reflects on his time at UConn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":212711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-212709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-quote"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 01:58:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212709"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212744,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212709\/revisions\/212744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/212711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212709"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=212709"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=212709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}