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| Garcia studies physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, working as a security guard to pay his tuition, and is immersed in new projects that give free rein to the curiosity he's had since kindergarten. | |
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Mexico City – Cristobal Miguel Garcia Jaimes, who just turned 19, says he was driven to build the world's cheapest particle accelerator by his interest in motivating other indigenous youths in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.
"My region is very troubled, marginalized and forgotten and, in the current situation, students and young people resort to violence," he said. "I wanted to show that that's not how it is, that we can achieve peace through science and culture."
It took Garcia eight months and 23 days to build his "pocket accelerator" on a budget of 1,000 pesos ($69), making it the cheapest such device in the world.
The newest major particle accelerator, Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider, has a diameter of 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) and cost $5 billion.
Garcia's accelerator, he explains, "comprises a source of particles, an acceleration system, an optical electronic system and a target, a fluorescent screen where there's a blip of light when electrons hit it."
"My dream is that each high school may have one accelerator encouraging students to explore science and that they can see that accelerators can be something common, an everyday thing," he said.
Garcia was awarded Mexico's 2014 National Youth Prize, and he says the honor shows young people that circumstances, "as difficult as they may be, do not determine your future." Acting on this idea, Garcia co-founded and now directs the Science Without Borders Foundation to encourage students and "to find young indigenous talent."
"I am convinced that the next Einstein, Beethoven or Picasso might be living in places like Guerrero or (the neighboring state of) Michoacan," he said.
The Science Without Borders Foundation invites young people "to continue their studies, to avoid discouragement because they are indigenous, to see that there are alternatives to drug trafficking and violence."
Garcia now studies physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, working as a security guard to pay his tuition, and is immersed in new projects that give free rein to the curiosity he has been exercising since he was in the kindergarten.
"I heard that at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (scientists) have generated X-rays with adhesive tape and I want to do it here," he said.
Young people in Mexico find obstacles to careers in science due to "a lack of scholarships and awareness" and schools' failure to give pupils the self-confidence to tackle research.
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