As a young student in Bogota, Colombia, Ana Maria Rey was discouraged by her parents from pursuing her love of physics.
Her mother, an economist and university dean, and her father, a lawyer who helped manage the national lottery, thought it wasn’t practical. They thought Rey should study engineering.
But Rey stuck with physics, intrigued that reality could be described by equations.
A couple of decades later, Rey, 36, is now one of the recipients of the 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, or “genius grant,” for her work with ultra-cold atoms. The theoretical physicist joins a rarefied group of scientists, musicians, choreographers, writers, historians and others honored by the MacArthur Foundation since 1981 for “exceptional creativity” in their work. The foundation lauded Rey for “advancing our ability to simulate, manipulate, and control novel states of matter” through her research into ultra-cold atoms.
A fellow at JILA, a joint institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Rey will receive a $625,000 stipend, paid out over five years, which she can spend any way she likes.
Dr. Jun Ye, a fellow at JILA who works with Rey, says she has “clearly distinguished herself among her peers” and is a great role model for women who want to go into science.
