Sara Cuevas Quiñones

2024 Fulbright U.S. Student Program Grantee

Hometown

San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S.

Major

Physics and Planetary Sciences

College

College of Science

 

Aspiring to become a professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Sara anticipates a long career of collaboration with colleagues across the Americas to minimize the global consequences of local volcanic eruptions.  On the Fulbright, she begins this journey by working with a team of scientists at the University of Chile, Santiago, where she will study volcanic hazards in the Central Andes and Altiplano-Puma regions. Growing up in Puerto Rico, Sara was motivated to study physics and planetary sciences not only from her access to visit the Arecibo Radio Observatory, but also through a high school science academy that gave her a reason to be there every Saturday.

 

Arriving at Purdue with her eyes set on becoming a scientist, Sara recalls struggling with feelings of homesickness at a pivotal moment in her professional development following a structural collapse of the observatory in December 2020.  Working through her grief, Sara discovered a profound commitment to inspire future generations of scientists with her knowledge of geophysics together with an understanding of her Latin American heritage.