CV

Education

• PhD in Physics. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2025–2028).
• MSc in Physics. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2023–2025).
• Licentiate in Physics (GPA: 3.62, highest in 2021 class). University of El Salvador (2017–2023).
• Diploma Programme on Theoretical Physics. Mesoamerican Centre For Theoretical Physics at Autonomous University of Chiapas (2021–2022).

Peer-reviewed publications

• Urquilla, E., & Johns, L. (2025). Testing common approximations of neutrino fast flavor conversion. arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.23917. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23917. Submitted to Physical Review D.
• Urquilla, E., & Richers, S. (2024). Chaos in inhomogeneous neutrino fast flavor instability. Physical Review D, 109(10), 103040. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.103040
• Tamayo, D., Urquilla, E., & Gómez-Vargas, I. (2025). Equivalence of dark energy models: A theoretical and bayesian perspective. Physics of the Dark Universe, 101901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dark.2025.101901

Invited talks

• Neutrino Oscillation in Supernovae and Neutron Star Mergers: A Particle-in-Cell Approach to Quantum Neutrino Transport. Astrophysics Distinguished Seminar Series. Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos, New Mexico, US. June 20, 2024.
• Neutrinos: From the Explosions of Stellar Cores to the Building Blocks of the Matter That Surrounds Us. Physics Section Colloquium. University of El Salvador, East Multidisciplinary Faculty. San Miguel, El Salvador. October 3, 2025.
• Neutrinos: From the hearth of the sun to the calcium in our bones. Colleague of Engineering Seminar. Central American University. Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. July 11, 2025.
• Neutrino oscillations in dense gasses: Supernovae and neutron star mergers. Physical sciences and molecular biology doctoral colloquium. University of El Salvador. San Salvador, El Salvador. April 25, 2024.

Leadership

• Neutrino Fast Flavor Instability Journal Club Organizer (2024–2025): Coordinated 17 discussion sessions on neutrino collective oscillation papers, with an average attendance of 7 participants from universities across the U.S. Served as main presenter in 5 sessions.
• Co-founder and lead organizer of InspiraSTEM 2025 & 2026 Conference (inspirastem.com): Directed the mentoring program (30 mentors, 100 students), advised academic workshops (6 workshops with 3 sessions each), coordinated research internships and academic partnerships, and managed the review and acceptance of 100 out 250 student applications in 2025.
• Co-founder and core team member of the Community of Salvadorans in Science: Led collaboration with El Salvador's Presidential Commission for Salvadorans Abroad to propose a national science agency modeled on the NSF and DFG. Coordinated the monthly newsletter.

Awards and honors

• GSS Award for Excellence in Community Engagement. April 7, 2025.
• Selected Attendee, Caltech Relativistic Astrophysics Summer School. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. June 23–27, 2025.
• GSS Travel Award. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. December 15, 2023.
• GSS Travel Award. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. March 7, 2025.
• Graduate Research Fellowship "Dr. Elizabeth M. Bains and Dr James A. Bains". University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 2023–2025.
• APS Division of Particle and Field Travel Grant for 2022 APS meeting. April 15, 2023.
• APS Group of Few Body and Multiparticle Dynamics Travel Grant for 2022 APS meeting. April 15, 2023.
• Selected Attendee (Sole undergraduate student chosen), N3AS Summer School on Multi-Messenger Astrophysics. University of California, Santa Cruz. July 31 – August 7, 2022.
• San Juan Opico Municipality Fellowship for College Education Support (2018–2019).
• Interviewed by Adventist radio for perfect PAES-math score and outstanding University of El Salvador admission test performance.
• Selected admission at the University of El Salvador (2017–2021) with full tuition coverage.
• Perfect PAES-math score (PAES was in 2016 El Salvador's national high school standardized test).

Contributed talks

• Neutrino Flavor Mixing Patterns Produced by Colliding Neutron Stars. Princeton University, PCTS Workshop on the Extreme Physics of Neutron Star Interiors. Princeton, New Jersey. May 14, 2025.
• EMU: A PIC Approach to Neutrino Transport with Flavor Transformation. American Physical Society 2025 Global Physics Summit Meeting. Anaheim, CA. March 18, 2025.
• A PIC approach to neutrino transport with flavor transformations. High-Energy and Astrophysics and Cosmology seminar. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. November 13, 2024.
• Neutrino oscillations in dense gasses: Supernovae and neutron star mergers (Poster). International High Performance Computing Summer School. Kobe, Japan. July 9, 2024.
• Neutrino oscillations in dense gasses: Supernovae and neutron star mergers. The conference on physics, astronomy, climate change and mathematics. Copan, Honduras. July 2, 2024.
• Equivalence between dynamical, interactive and vacuum decay dark energy in the late universe. Mesoamerican Centre for Theoretical Physics. May 5, 2022.
• CMB spectral distortions constraints on primordial black holes with monochromatic mass distribution. University of El Salvador. January 28, 2022.
• Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. American Physical Society April Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. April 18, 2023.
• Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. University of El Salvador. San Salvador. June 20, 2023.
• Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. Alpha-Cen/Guasa Conference. Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. July 6, 2023.
• Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. Astronomical American Society Meeting. January 8, 2024.
• Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society Meeting. November 9, 2023.
• Research proposal: Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. University of California, Berkeley. August 8, 2022.
• Research proposal: Chaos in neutrino fast flavor instability. University of El Salvador. June 11, 2022.

Teaching

• Workshop: Advanced Computational Techniques for Hydro/Aerodynamics in Engineering and Astrophysics. InspiraSTEM 2025 Conference in Key Institute. July 23–25, 2025.
• Workshop: Neutrino radiate processes and oscillation in computational astrophysics (2 sessions of 2 hours each). Workshops series in computational astrophysics. Physics Department, University of El Salvador. July 15–17, 2025.
• Workshop: Computational fluid dynamics techniques in astrophysics (3 sessions of 2 hours each). Autonomous University of Honduras. November 11–15, 2024.

Public outreach

• Building an International Community of Salvadorans in Science (Talk). InspiraSTEM 2025 Conference. El Salvador. July 24 for university representatives and July 25 for government officials.
• Graduate School Applications (Panel). InspiraSTEM 2025 Conference. El Salvador. July 23, 2025.
• Solar astrophysics (talk). Centro Escolar Juana Barrera Aquino and ECAS, El Salvador. July 21, 2025.
• From challenges to opportunities: How to apply postgraduate studies in the United States (Panel). Society of Physics Students. Autonomous University of Honduras. November 14, 2024.
• Spanish speaker in planetarium (Show). Muse children's STEAM museum. April 8, 2024.
• How to apply to a PhD program in the United States (Talk). University of El Salvador. November 23, 2023.
• Neutron star and the origin of gold (Talk). Centro Escolar Juana Barrera Aquino and Centro Escolar Casto Valladares, El Salvador. November 7, 2022.

References