Sharing his passion for science

Physics grad Martin Vega wants to become 'the best science educator I can be'

By California State University, Bakersfield

May 14^th, 2025

Martin Vega knows the power of a passionate scientist’s ability to inspire people to marvel at the world around them and aspire to learn more. It was astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who sparked Vega’s own interest in science, and now the graduating senior hopes to influence future generations in the classroom as a science educator himself.

“His passion and enthusiasm that he exuded every time he explained something scientific was just so captivating,” Vega said of Tyson. “I also felt rewarded after I understood something about the natural world that he explained. I just wanted to learn more. After giving it some thought, I decided to go to college to study physics.”

This weekend, Vega will graduate from California State University, Bakersfield with his bachelor’s degree in physics and a plan to return to the university in the fall to earn his teaching credential. Using his passion for science and everything he has learned about physics, Vega is excited to come full circle and motivate students to pursue their own scientific interests.

Finding physics

It wasn’t until Vega was a junior at Independence High School that he knew what he wanted to do in life, but a future in science quickly came into focus after he discovered Tyson, a well-known science communicator who has become something of a celebrity scientist with television appearances and a strong social media presence.

With a new interest in all the world of science, Vega eventually settled on a specific subject.

“I wanted to learn more about how nature works, and I decided physics because it's at the foundation of all natural laws,” he said. “I wanted to understand how it all worked at the most fundamental level.”

After graduating high school in 2020, Vega decided to attend CSUB because of its physics program and the university’s proximity to home. With his first two years as a Roadrunner spent doing remote learning due to the pandemic, Vega said his introduction to college wasn’t exactly ideal.

Fortunately, before Vega started his freshman year, he received an email inviting him to the College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering’s Pathways program, which connected incoming STEM majors with an older student mentor and specialized advising. With Pathways mentors, advisors and fellow students, Vega had a built-in group of new friends and a valuable support network.

“It was so hard to find motivation during that first year, and being in a pandemic didn't help,” he said. “But they really motivated me and encouraged me to stay on top of my coursework, and so just because of that, my first year was much brighter.”

Vega also found support in the Department of Physics and Engineering. While students in any program at CSUB benefit from smaller class sizes than they would at larger universities, the physics program is especially small. Vega recalled his classical mechanics and quantum mechanics classes, where he was one of just three students in both.

“I got along with pretty much all the other physics majors here and grew close to the physics professors,” Vega said. “That's definitely a benefit about being a physics major here.”

Experimenting with career options

One faculty member Vega worked closely with was Dr. Yize Li, an associate professor of physics. In spring 2023, Vega worked in her laboratory researching biodegradable soil sensors. The research process was a learning experience for Vega, though not the way he might have initially expected.

“I learned what research was like, and I realized that doing research in a laboratory setting was not really for me,” Vega said. “I realized that I don't really like spending so much time in the lab and something goes wrong, or it doesn't work, and it gets kind of frustrating, and you have to do the whole thing over.”

If not a career in a lab, Vega had to figure out what else he might want to do with his physics degree. He recalled classroom visits from CSUB alumni who went on to work at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, but he didn’t think he would like working in the desert for years. He also considered aerospace engineering but didn’t find himself too passionate about that option either.

“Then I remembered the importance of having a really good teacher, especially for a high school student just figuring out what it is they like,” Vega said. “I remembered how rewarding it was to have a professional science educator, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, to communicate some complicated process or part of nature in a way that allows even everyday people to understand.

“That was when I decided to pursue a teaching career and to try to become the best science educator I can be,” he said.

Though Vega might not have been inspired to become a research scientist like herself, Dr. Li was still committed to helping her student realize his full potential in his newfound passion for science education. Dr. Li switched gears from guiding Vega as a researcher to helping him as an educator.

In the fall 2024 semester, Dr. Li gave Vega the opportunity to research different teaching methods related to physics, identifying challenges students might face when trying to understand abstract physics topics like electric fields, waves, quantum mechanics and more. She also gave him a job as an instructional student assistant for her algebra-based Physics II classes last fall and this spring, which gave him the chance to practice what he was learning as he worked with students.

“Martin demonstrated an excellent performance, and most importantly, I saw his true passion in physics education,” she said. “Martin not only graded quizzes and group discussion problems but also presented topics on abstract concepts. I am confident that Martin will do a great job as a high school physics teacher.”

Through his research, Vega learned specific techniques to better teach his future students.

“One particular strategy that really stood out to me during my research was using your hands or body or using actual demonstrations to teach a specific topic, because it's a way to help students or your audience get engaged in what it is you're explaining,” he said. “That's also something that I noticed whenever I watched Neil deGrasse Tyson give an explanation about something: he would use his hands, and his voice would be so powerful, and it would just resonate with me and just make me more passionate about the universe.”

Though he will continue his journey as a future educator as he earns his teaching credential, Vega is grateful for the chance to dig deeper into physics pedagogy as an undergrad.

“I want to give special thanks to Dr. Yize Li for giving me many opportunities to discover what I really like and to build my skills as a scientist and as an educator,” he said.

‘It’s all coming to an end’

When Vega walks the stage at commencement this weekend, he will have his parents, siblings and other extended family in the audience cheering him on.

“I'm so grateful to have parents who support me no matter what I want to do,” he said. “There were times during my degree when they noticed that I was just struggling and stressed out with school, and they were always very supportive of me.”

With the teaching credential program on the horizon, Vega still has at least a year and a half in the classroom as a student before he’s leading a classroom of his own. For now, though, he’s taking a moment to appreciate the milestone he is about to complete.

“It’s been five years, and finally, it’s all coming to an end,” he said. “This was definitely not easy for me. Physics is not easy. But it feels great to finally be wrapping it up and moving on to the next part of my life.”