Northeastern doctoral student awarded Soros Fellowship to study intersection between physics and math
At Northeastern, Oswaldo Vazquez is studying quantum field theory, a framework used to study elementary particles.
Studying the complex intersection between mathematics and quantum physics is no small undertaking.
At Northeastern University, Oswaldo Vazquez, a doctoral student working under Northeastern mathematics professor Jonathan Weitsman, is doing just that.
“It’s a little bit of an interesting sort of interaction, but not so far-fetched because physics and math have historically been very tied together,” Vazquez said.
Working under Weitsman, Vazquez spends much of his time exploring quantum field theory, which he describes as “the main framework physicists use to describe elementary particles.”
While quantum field theory has been around for decades, there are still many open mathematical questions Vazquez and Weitsman are exploring, Vazquez said.
“Mathematics is a very precise discipline, which studies logic and patterns,” Vazquez said. “Everything is laid out in a very precise manner. Quantum field theory sort of tries to be flexible with [that logic], which can be bothersome because you are sacrificing some of that rigor.”
Northeastern Global News, in your inbox.
Sign up for NGN’s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.
To continue with this research, Vazquez has been awarded the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a highly prestigious scholarship awarded to immigrants and the children of immigrants making transformational contributions in the United States.
Although Vazquez was born in Los Angeles, California, he spent most of his formative years in Mexico — his parents’ native country. They left the U.S. when he was about 5 years old out of fear they would be deported, he told Northeastern Global News.
But Vazquez came back to the U.S. when he was a teen, living with his aunt while he attended high school in LA.
Vazquez said coming back to the United States was a tough decision because it meant leaving his parents behind. But he knew it was the right choice if he wanted to expand his educational opportunities.
“It was a heavy toll,” he said.
But it was in high school where he found a love for mathematics and the “nature of reality,” he said.
He went on to get his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 2023, and in 2024, enrolled in Northeastern University to pursue a doctorate in physics.
As part of his research, Vazquez has also examined galactic dark matter and subatomic particles known as neutrinos.
Founded by the Hungarian-American philanthropists Paul and Daisy Soros, the Soros Fellowship program was designed to “level the playing field” for immigrants and their children working in the arts and sciences.
As part of the program, fellows receive stipends that pay for up to two years of their graduate degrees. Additionally, the fellows gain access to the Soros Fellowship’s vast network and alumni association.
This year, the organization awarded fellowships to 30 candidates out of more than 3,000 applicants, which it said were chosen not just for their “talents but [their] deep commitment to giving back to the United States.”
Weitsman said the fellowship recognizes Vazquez’s “achievements and his promise for the future.”
Weitsman said researchers have long been exploring the boundary between physics and mathematics, but that work in this area “is very challenging for students, since it presupposes knowledge, at a research level, of two different scientific fields, with very different viewpoints.”
“Oswaldo Vazquez was able to overcome this barrier even as a first-year student and has been hard at work ever since,” he said.
