My inspirations

Hello everyone!

Well, I told you I was going to talk about my inspirations to venture into theoretical chemistry...Everyone has their heroes, their inspirations and the people who motivate them to go forward. I have a few:

First of all, the most renowned scientist the world has known. Born on December 25th in 1642, his name? Sir Isaac Newton.

I think almost everyone admires Newton, why would someone not admire him? He did, well basically, explained the world with his physics. Gravitation, optics, CALCULUS! Along with Leibniz they developed the most used tool in everyday life. What could we do without calculus? Almost every formula you've encountered in your life has a differential, an integral, a limit.

Why do I admire him? He had the ability to create science that I would compare to art, his mathematical and physical creations are simply beautiful, the ability to explain the natural phenomena that were present in his everyday life. The motion of the planets and the stars, comets and asteroids. The idea of a force that brings things together. Newton was simply magnificent.

Sir Isaac Newton

Next, another great man that made one of the greatest breakthroughs of the history of mankind. Just to say that he derived the equations of the electromagnetic theory and the kinetic gas theory...His name? James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest scientists ever to have existed.

So, why him? The importance of his work is monumental, we can compare him to Newton. He made another unifying theory. His admiration to Faraday led him to formulate the equations that describe the behavior of electricity and magnetism. If you are now in college and have taken physics I can bet that you've encountered his name quite a few times. More if you've already taken a course in electromagnetism or physical chemistry. Maxwell's work opened the doors to many new disciplines, it helped many other scientist in their work. Maxwell's explanations of things were like poetry, everything was fluent, everything was like a rhyme.

There are a couple more...

Now a chemist, the one who inspired me to research the chemical bond. The great: Linus Pauling. 

The Nature of the Chemical Bond, by Linus Pauling. The title of one of the greatest pieces of scientific research that has ever been published. I dream on publishing an article called "The New Nature of the Chemical Bond". Linus Pauling is an inspiration to every chemist that want to be called a quantum one. His work on the chemical bond had no precedents. The idea of just a binding force between atoms abandoned the place as soon as Pauling published his finding. With the help of quantum mechanics he was able to create a portrait of the chemical bond. 

What else did he do? Well if that wasn't enough...If you are a chemist or have some notion of it you'll understand this: He conceived electronegativity. 

What else can I say? We now take electronegativity as a basic concept, it is taught in high school, in college...everywhere! It is so simple but imagine the time where there was no electronegativity...

How could you explain the course of a chemical reaction? Electronegativity helps you recognize the active spots of a molecule, why they will react. It is the key to a very big part of chemistry. 

My inspirations are not only scientists. My family is my greatest inspiration of them all. Thanks to them I've been able to achieve the things that I have done. They provided me with the opportunities, with the support to pursue my dreams. I can confidently say that they are proud of what I've done until now. I want to thank them for everything that they have done, they've brought me to this point in life where I can make my own future, where I can make a difference. 

My father, Jorge Gálvez. (in the middle)

My mother, Adriana Vallejo. (it's obvious who she is)

My brother, Gerardo Gálvez. (the one in the blue sweater)

Thanks to them I've been able to succeed in everything I have done and I am in eternal gratitude with them.

And then there's me in the striped sweater.

Thanks for reading! In the next post I'll write something about what I've done until now.

See you!

Square One

Well hello all of you!

This, as the name of the blog implies, shall be the story of my journey into theoretical chemistry. My name is Jorge Luis Gálvez Vallejo, I'm currently an undergraduate chemistry student from Mexico. I study at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla and I'm currently in my fifth semester out of eight. 

My passions in theoretical chemistry are the chemical bond, a problem that has troubled many great minds and has brought enormous advances in the entire field of chemistry, the other one is chemical kinetics and the modeling of dynamic chemical systems. 

I'm basically just a regular guy who really loves maths, physics and of course chemistry. I want to work in something that unites them all. That is why I chose to specialize in theoretical chemistry, in order to be able to use as much maths as I need, give the maths physical explanations and use that to understand the world of chemistry. 

What has brought me to this "square one"? 

Since high school I developed a great love for science and since my second semester of college a love for research started growing in me, everything has led me to the point in which I am right now. I just want to know things, solve problems, have fun doing all of it. 

In the next post I shall talk about my inspirations for doing theoretical chemistry! 

See you soon!