Renowned Hispanic Scientists

Luis Walter Alvarez

Luis Walter Alvarez (1911-88) was born in San Francisco, California.  His father was a physician who authored medical books.  Alvarez earned a B.S. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1932.  He continued his graduate education there, receiving a Master’s degree in 1934 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1936.  Prof. Arthur Compton, Alvarez’s doctoral advisor, was the recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the particle-like properties of electromagnetic radiation.  After completing his Ph.D., Alvarez began work at the University of California, Berkeley, as an experimental physicist at the Radiation Laboratory. 

Alvarez was an idea man with widespread interests that aided the U.S. in World War II. He invented a ground-controlled radar system, the Microwave Phased Array Antenna, that made it possible for ground crews to precisely determine the position of an aircraft in flight and assist pilots landing airplanes. Alvarez developed a process for detecting radiation gases that enabled the military to determine whether Nazi Germany was developing an atomic bomb. He was also a member of the team of scientists and engineers involved in the Manhattan project that produced America’s first atomic bomb. He invented the electrical detonation method used to explode the plutonium bomb. Alvarez flew in an observation aircraft over Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped that ended World War II in order to measure how powerful the nuclear explosions had been.

After the war, Alvarez returned to Berkeley to work on particle accelerators. An accelerator propels charged particles, such as protons or electrons, close to the speed of light, smashing them either onto a target or against other particles. The energy of the collision is transformed into matter in the form of particles. Alvarez developed a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber that permitted him to track the particles coming out of the accelerator. In the late 1950s, this chamber was used to discover a variety of new atomic particles. Alvarez was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through development of the technique of using his hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis.”

In 1967, Alvarez developed a method using cosmic rays to take an X-ray type photo in the search for hidden rooms in the Pyramids of Egypt.  In 1980, Alvarez and his son published evidence of their belief that the extinction of dinosaurs had been caused by a massive meteorite’s impact on the Earth.

There is a short video that summarizes Alvarez’s scientific accomplishments.

Severo Ochoa

Severo Ochoa (1905–93) was a biochemist and educator.  The youngest of seven children, he was born in Spain and educated at the University of Madrid where he received his M.D. in 1929. Prior to becoming a professor of pharmacology (1946) at New York University (NYU), he held teaching positions at the universities of Madrid, Heidelberg, and Oxford.  In 1954, he was appointed chairman of the department of biochemistry at NYU.  American citizenship followed in 1956.

The 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg “for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid.”  Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an organic compound that carries hereditary qualities in reproduction.  By demonstrating that it is possible to create RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the laboratory, their research gave birth to genetic engineering and the study of genetic codes that influence the basic aspects of how living beings function. 

In addition to the Nobel Prize, numerous universities around the world awarded Ochoa honorary degrees.  He was awarded the Neuberg Medal in Biochemistry in 1951, and received both the Medal of the Société de Chimie Biologique and the Medal of New York University in 1959.  He also was a recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1978.  Ochoa’s contributions to science were recognized by naming the asteroid 117435 “Severochoa” in his honor.  Lastly, as part of the American Scientists collection, the U. S. Postal Service issued a stamp honoring him in June, 2011.

At the age of 69, Ochoa retired from NYU and moved to the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in Nutley, New Jersey.  He continued his work there until he was 80.

Mario J. Molina

Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (1943-2020) was born in Mexico City. He attended high school there before earning a degree in chemical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1965. His Ph.D. in physical chemistry was awarded by the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972.

Molina was one of the first scientists to warn the world about the dangers of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Commonly known by the DuPont brand name Freon, CFCs were widely used in refrigerators, aerosols, and cleaning solvents. Molina, working with Professor Sherwood Rowland at the University of California, Irvine, revealed that CFCs were a threat to the Earth’s ozone layer. Molina’s research led to the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole. This work prompted adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 (that was put in force in 1989), a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of chemicals that reduce the supply of ozone in the earth’s atmosphere.  

Molina, Sherwood, and another scientist, Paul J Crutzen, were co-recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995. In 2013, President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Journal Interview with Mario Molina is a 2012 video in which Molina reveals his thinking about the threats of climate change.

Ana Luz Porzecanski

Ana Luz Porzecanski was born in Uruguay and raised in rural Brazil by parents, both of whom were professors.  Surrounded by wildlife and unspoiled landscapes, early in life she developed a strong curiosity about the natural world.  In 1995, Porzecanski earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences at the Universidad de la República, Uruguay.  She continued her studies at Columbia University (N.Y.) from which she received a Certificate in Environmental Policy in 2000, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2003.

Following her formal education, Porzecanski joined the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC), an organization created in 1993 by the American Museum of Natural History. The CBC devotes its extensive scientific and educational resources to the conservation of the Earth’s biodiversity (i.e., the biological variety and variability of life on Earth). Since 2010, she directed its Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners, a program founded in 2002 that develops teaching resources and instructional techniques on various conservation topics for university educators and professional trainers in Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. Porzecanski became the Director of CBC in 2014. This position requires strategic planning of conservation capacity development projects worldwide, often in collaboration with other major organizations concerned with biodiversity and sustainability (avoidance of the exhaustion of natural resources). In 2016, she co-curated ¡Cuba!, a binational, bilingual traveling museum exhibition on Cuba’s nature and culture, and the largest exhibition of its kind ever presented in the U.S.

Porzecanski is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas, an initiative of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. She is a Board Member of the Latin America & Caribbean Section of the Society for Conservation Biology. For many years, Porzecanski has been an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University and New York University where she teaches courses in conservation biology and evolution. 

In a brief informative video, Porzecanski introduces herself and her work in the field of biodiversity.

Adriana Ocampo

Born in Columbia in 1955 and raised in Argentina, planetary geologist Adriana Ocampo moved to the U.S. as a teen. Having grown up with a great interest in space, she joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) volunteer group after her junior year in high school. She was employed by the JPL while attending California State University at Los Angeles, earning a B.S. in geology in 1983. As a full-time research scientist at JPL, Ocampo earned a Master of Science in planetary geology from California State University, Northridge. Her Master’s thesis and Ph.D. dissertation (from the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands in 2013) focused on the Chicxulub impact crater (called the Crater of Doom) located beneath the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico that caused the extinction of over half of the Earth’s species 65 million years ago.

In 2015, Ocampo was a lead program executive in the New Frontiers Program at the JPL.  This program included the New Horizons mission to Pluto (launched in 2006 with arrival in 2015). The program also entailed a large-scale Juno mission to Jupiter (launched in 2011 that established a polar orbit of the planet on July 5, 2016).  NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is an ongoing mission that visited and collected a sample from asteroid 101955 Bennu (the sample was returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023). Ocampo also led NASA scientists in their work with the European Space Agency’s exploration of Venus. 

Ocampo served the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers as both secretary and vice president. She was named National Hispanic Scientist of the Year in 2016 from Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry. The awards Ocampo has received that recognize the scientific achievements of women include Woman of the Year Award in Science from the Comision Femenil (a Mexican-American organization dedicated to economically and politically empowering Chicana women in the U.S.), JPL’s Advisory Council for Women Award, and the Science and Technology Award from the Chicano Federation. In recognition of her contributions to space exploration, the asteroid 177120 Ocampo Uría discovered in 2003 was named after her.

A video is available of Ocampo speaking about her life and her passion for space.

Franklin Chang-Diaz

Franklin Chang-Diaz was born in 1950 in San José, Costa Rica, one of six children of his Chinese father and Costa Rican mother. At the age of 7, he decided that he wanted to come to the U.S. to become an astronaut. He attended high school in Costa Rica. When he was 18, with only $50 in his pocket and speaking only Spanish, Chang-Diaz traveled to the U.S. for the first time, settling with his uncle in Connecticut where he began his higher education. 

After a year in which he learned English, he received a scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut.  He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1973 and then a doctorate in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977.  From 1977 until 1980, Chang-Diaz was involved in magnetic and inertial confinement fusion research at MIT and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.

Chang-Díaz became the first Hispanic astronaut when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected him in 1980.  His first venture into space was aboard Columbia in 1986.  He is a veteran of seven missions during which he logged more than 1,600 hours in space, including 19 hours performing spacewalks.  Chang-Díaz is a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.  From 1993 until 2005, he served as Director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center.  In that role he managed a multicenter research team that developed advanced plasma rocket propulsion concepts on which the VASIMER rocket engine is based.

Following his career at NASA, Chang-Diaz founded Ad Astra Rocket Company.  He is the Chairman and CEO of this U.S. firm.  The company is developing the VASIMER rocket engine that he invented which promises to revolutionize space travel.  With the goal of being an example for developing countries to achieve self-sustainable, carbon-free energy, the Costa Rican branch of his company has developed the first carbon free hydrogen dispenser in Latin America and operates the first hydrogen fuel cell bus in Central America.

Chang-Diaz describes his early life in a brief video and offers much greater detail about his career in a second video.

Ellen Ochoa

Ellen Ochoa was born in Los Angeles in 1958 and was raised in California, graduating from high school in La Mesa in 1975. She immersed herself in the sciences, completing a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from San Diego State University in 1980. She then attended Stanford University where she earned a Master of Science degree in 1981 and Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1985. Ochoa’s doctoral studies primarily focused on optical systems for use in space exploration.  This research stream eventually provided her with an appropriate background for service in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Following graduate school, Ochoa developed optical systems as a research engineer at Sandia National Laboratories and at the Ames Research Center of NASA. Her work helped create several systems and methods that were awarded three patents in the field of optical information processing (pattern recognition, pattern localization and pattern tracking). Upon selection as an astronaut in 1990, Ochoa moved to the Johnson Space Center. She became the first Hispanic woman to fly into space when she served on the nine-day Discovery shuttle mission in 1993. Ochoa was a crew member on four shuttle missions, spending more than 1,000 hours in space. She served in a variety of roles, including leading onboard scientific activities.  

After retiring from spacecraft operations in 2007, Ochoa served as Deputy Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center for five years, leading the Flight Crew Operations Directorate.  She became the 11^th director of the Center on January 1, 2013, the first Hispanic and second female to hold that office.  When Ochoa retired from NASA in 2018, she was the recipient of NASA’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal.  Following service as vice chair of the National Science Board (which runs the National Science Foundation), she became NSB chair in 2020.  Ochoa describes her career in an excellent video. She revealed more details of her life while accepting an award from Davidson College in 2023.  

Ochoa is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard Foundation Science Award, Women in Aerospace’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award.  She was awarded honorary doctorates from The University of Pennsylvania, The Johns Hopkins University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Ochoa is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Inventors.

Discussion Questions

1. Besides their Hispanic heritage, what other characteristics do the scientists profiled have in common?  Do you think that one or more of these shared characteristics is very important in leading to the success of Hispanic scientists?
2. Which of these scientists would you have liked to meet in person in order to find out more about her/his work?
3. Why do you think that it is important that Hispanics have made significant scientific contributions?

Additional Resources

Greater detail about science and scientific methods are presented in videos prepared for middle and high school students:  What Is Science? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids and What is Science? – YouTube.

There are several sources that identify prominent Hispanic scientists and that provide biographical information about them.  For example, Great Minds in STEM™ is the gateway for Hispanics in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  Its Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation provides annual prizes that recognize prominent contributors in STEM fields (the 2023 recipients are presented).  Importantly, the organization can assist educators looking to supplement lesson plans with Hispanic role models in STEM.

Brief summaries of the careers of all other Hispanic astronauts are available at this 2023 NASA article.