Outreach/CURIE

Having grown up in a tough, under-resourced area of South Central Los Angeles and attending Title I* LAUSD schools throughout my life, I am passionate about giving back and providing opportunities for children of all backgrounds to pursue their interests in the sciences.

To achieve this, I and fellow UCLA astro-physicist Prof. Smadar Naoz founded an outreach program that connects UCLA to local Title I high schools: CURIE (California's future science leaders), named after trail-blazing Nobel Laureate Marie Curie. 

The most recent CURIE event was held with my alma mater, Huntington Park High School in southeast Los Angeles, thanks to a generous donation from the UCLA Dept of Physics and Astronomy and in collaboration with HPHS teachers Ms. Tiscareño, Ms. Gabriel, and Mr. Martinez. Students visited the UCLA campus, participated in Q&A sessions with panels of professors and student researchers, a planetarium show, fun science demos, and learned about black holes from UCLA's very own Nobel Laureate, Prof. Andrea Ghez!

If you are a K-12 science teacher at a Title I school in the greater Los Angeles area and are interested in participating in CURIE events, please contact Profs. Gutiérrez or Naoz!

*Title I is a federal program that supports the educational needs of students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.