When astrophysicist Dr. Héctor Arce returned home to Puerto Rico in October of 2015, it was to bring a handful of Yale astronomy students to Arecibo Observatory, at that time, the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. For Héctor, a professor of astrophysics at Yale University, passion for the stars started at home. When Héctor was young, his grandfather used to build his own telescopes. “I still have them,” Héctor says. Staring through the lenses of those telescopes with his grandfather opened a universe of possibility for young Héctor.

You could say that the life of Dr. Daniel Colón-Ramos is one big game of connect-the-dots. A native of Palo Hincado in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, and now associate professor at Yale University, Daniel investigates how neurons make connections to form a functional nervous system.

Dr. Colón-Ramos has taken the lessons he’s learned about connectivity and applied them beyond the bench, finding ways to link two of his loves: science and Puerto Rico. 

Homeland connection