Stories of the 2024 ICTP Diploma Graduates

Juan Castellanos doesn’t shy away from a good challenge. “I chose to study physics at university because I had failed an important exam in high school,” he says, and explains, “My path in the field has been marked by failure. I also failed an important exam at university, but those experiences have helped me in life. Now I am at ease with asking questions and approaching people, which failing has helped me with.”

Along the way, choosing the most challenging option has become his way to move ahead. “At university, I decided to join a group in theoretical high energy physics, in addition to attending regular courses. There, I found out that mathematics was a barrier for me in studying more advanced topics, so I entered a programme in maths, and fell love with topology and differential geometry. My interest in condensed matter physics also comes from encountering obstacles there. I take barriers as signs that I need to study more, and I move towards rather than away from them,” he explains.

The ICTP Diploma Programme has been an opportunity to enter a research field that would not have been accessible to me had I stayed in Colombia.

Castellanos’ choice to study condensed matter physics at ICTP was just the next step on this path. “I heard about ICTP from a former ICTP visitor and a professor at my university. He had been advertising the ICTP Diploma Programme to his students, which is how I heard about it. When the time came for me to apply, I decided to choose condensed matter rather than high energy physics, because it is very multidisciplinary, and connections between different fields are what interests me the most,” he says.

“The ICTP Diploma Programme has been an opportunity to enter a research field that would not have been accessible to me had I stayed in Colombia,” Castellanos continues. “The master’s programmes available at my home university are outdated. No one carries out research on those topics anymore,” he explains. At ICTP, he chose to do his final project on many body quantum systems, particularly on their topological features, and explains, “I set out to find an expression for the geometric quantum noise in higher order interactions, such as supermagnetism.”

I was expecting to feel surrounded by strangers, but I soon realized that the other students are not that different from me.

Castellanos feels that his experience at ICTP has opened new doors for him. “Right now, I feel part of a community. I see some of my fellow students going to Japan, Denmark, and I realize that here I have built important connections with people that I hope to continue working with in the future,” he comments. Having arrived in Trieste just less than one year ago, this was also his first time living abroad. “I was expecting to feel surrounded by strangers, but I soon realized that the other students are not that different from me after all. We all like to have fun and everyone enjoys a good joke!”

The eldest of two children, Castellanos takes pride in the academic aspirations of his younger sister, who looks up to him as she is finding her way in a different field, space engineering. “She sees me like a model right now. The fact that I had the opportunity to come to ICTP, a UNESCO institute, has motivated her to pursue her studies. I showed her that if one works hard, they can achieve important things,” he explains. When asked who played a similar role for him, he had a hard time choosing between his mother and Cristiano Ronaldo. “My mum was obviously a fundamental model. She was a single mother and worked very hard to make sure that both my sister and I could attend the best schools. I have always felt like I needed to measure up to her,” he says, adding “but since I was a child, Cristiano Ronaldo has been for me an example of someone who can face hard challenges and go for what he wants with strong determination.”  

Next year, Castellanos will move to Germany, to start a master’s degree at the University of Stuttgart and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research to continue working on the topological features of condensed matter. “My goal is to learn as much theory as I can, and once I know enough, I will be able to start looking at the possible applications, and even try experiments,” he says, adding “I see myself as a future research leader, be it in academia or in a company. There is much that I want to accomplish!”