J.D Garcia: I think that careers in science are a superb- absolutely superb- way of life for any young person. They can be devoid of politics, if that’s what they wish- they don’t have to be devoid of politics, if that’s what they wish. You have the option, which you don’t always have in some other arenas.

Erika Montero: You are listening to the EarthSky podcast, La Clara Voz.

Thirty years ago, Dr. J.D. Garcia discovered an organization in which people were like him, talked like him and shared his same concerns. Since that moment, he has belonged to the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, SACNAS, an organization dedicated to inspire young Chicano and Native American youth to pursue science careers. Today, Dr. Garcia is honored to be the president elect.

Jorge Salazar: Dr. Garcia, thank you so much for taking this time out and speaking with Cielo y Tierra.

_Dr. J.D. Garcia_: I’m glad to be here.

_Jorge Salazar_: To start with, the vibe here at the SACNAS conference is so intense. There’s this mentoring vibe, and there’s this vibe from the students here- they’re very excited to be able to make these connections- and I’d like to ask a very basic question to you. Why do you care about what you do? What has influenced you?

_Dr. J.D. Garcia_: I can tell you, that when I first met with SACNAS, 30 some years ago, I was just thrilled to be among people who looked like me, who sounded like me, who had the same concerns as I had, and who were caring about the students, and all of that was just inspirational for me. I’ve been in SACNAS ever since. It’s a joy ride to come here and help students think about careers in science.

_Jorge Salazar_: Do you have any words of encouragement for young people who are thinking about going into the sciences, but just aren’t sure about what they’re doing, and whether it’s the right thing to do.

_Dr. J.D. Garcia_: Careers in science are really, really exciting and rewarding, so I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to any Hispanic or Native American youth to enter such a career because you get to travel all over the world. I’ve been into almost all parts of the globe as part of my job, as a scientist. I have spent years in Europe and I’ve traveled to Australia and South America- for conferences, for invited talks, for various meetings, various different international meetings, so it’s really, really exciting, in addition to which the work itself is exciting. I’m a theorist- an atomic theorist. I’m a physicist, and doing physics, it’s all by itself… I wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and smile, saying ‘I’m going to work today.’

_Jorge Salazar_: I guess, in thinking about this world that we live in today- this complicated world of today- with so much information out there. How do you select information for your personal use? In other words, how do you determine what’s true?

_Dr. J.D. Garcia_: That’s a really good question. I like that question. The determination of what’s true has many meanings, at very many different levels. What is really true is hard to come by. Real truth is really, really hard to come by. What is true for me is that I know that students interacting with a teacher, interact on an emotional, as well as an intellectual level, and so if the teacher does not convey an emotional energy about the subject, that the students come away thinking the subject is dull. ‘If the teacher is not interested in it, why should I be interested in it?’ And so, I know that to be true. I also know to be true that students need to be engaged, so passive listening to a lecturer is usually not of much value for students. So, they need to be actively engaged, and it’s the teacher’s job to do that engagement, it’s the student’s job to be engaged, but the teacher has to help.

_Jorge Salazar_: I’d like to talk, a little bit, about day-to-day problem-solving. What effect has your work as a scientist had on the choices that you make to live, in a good way?

_Dr. J.D. Garcia_: Science gives me a way of thinking about the world- a way of sorting evidence concerning the world. I use the techniques that I learned in science to sort out the things about everyday living, and I need to try to understand why things are the way they are, and then use that information to make decisions. So, there are many factors in everyday living which I’ll never be able to disentangle and because of that, I can’t use the scientific way of thinking all of the time, but I still use it as the framework within which I try to look at life. Physics, in particular, gives me a basis for why cars speed up, slow down, stop, collide when they collide, what happens when they collide. All that kind of information is what we teach in basic physics, and that’s very useful for everyday life.

_Jorge Salazar_: Dr. Garcia, I have one last question for you. Would you like to maybe relate, earlier in your life- when you didn’t know you wanted to be a scientist. Was there a moment in your life when it really hit you that ‘yes, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to pursue, this is my passion’?

_Dr. J.D. Garcia_: No, there was no epiphany for me. I drifted into science, basically. I had the mathematical skills and talent to do physics relatively easily at the beginning- it got harder later- but at the beginning it was relatively easy, and, as a result, I used that fact to get to work my way through undergraduate school, as a co-op student, working six months on the job, six months at school, and was able to fund my way through undergraduate school doing that. Graduate school of course, for all scientists, now you get paid to go to graduate school, so that’s different. So, I finally decided I really liked physics when I decided to go to graduate school. I had already a degree in physics, but I had a degree in physics because I could do it, basically, and then I had to make a choice: ‘what do I do next’? And I said, ‘well, I really like this stuff.’ So I decided to pursue a graduate degree and I haven’t regretted it for a minute. It’s been great!

_Erika Montero_: Our thanks to Dr. J.D. Garcia. I am Erika Montero and this was La Clara Voz podcast, produced by EarthSky Communications.