Hector Hawley Herrara
Queen's University
MSc Candidate - Particle Astrophysics
Hector Hawley Herrera is a MSc student working on the PICO experiment and scintillating bubble chambers under supervision of Prof. Ken Clark.
Contact Information
Room 412, Stirling Hall
Queen’s University
Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6
Phone: 613-533-6000 ext. 77074
Email: hawleyherrera.h@queensu.ca
Bio
I was born and raised in the American-Mexican border city of Juarez City, Chihuahua, Mexico, which does not have such a good reputation in the media. Since I was little, I had an affinity for physics and math. Due to reasons that almost make it look like destiny, I decided to go for Engineering in Physics. I loved it Instantly, and my life was completely changed.
The most important things, however, happened at the very end of my degree. I got an internship in engineering, which provided the funding necessary to complete my thesis project. My thesis was a personal project for nuclear and particle physics students with minimal access to resources and equipment. That is when I built my Photodiode spectrogram for gammas and betas. After that, I decided I wanted to be a builder and an experimentalist as I loved every second of deciding on new changes, time management, and where to improve in order to make something as efficiently as possible.
Also, at the same time, I decided to go to a contest to test my skills in the area. That is when I attended the “National contest for summer internships in experimental high energy physics” in Mexico. To my surprise, I won a ticket to SNOLAB! That summer, I met Ken Clark and realized how much I wanted to be part of this community. Luckily for me, Ken was going to need students, so the opportunity to work with such a fantastic person was my top priority. I do not need to tell that I succeeded.
For my future, I want to keep going forward, keep developing my physics, and engineering skills, and at some point, be known worldwide for something great.