Mentor: John Keller

Bio: My name is Michael Dominguez, I am 38 years old and currently reside in South Aurora. I am from Albuquerque, NM and have lived in Colorado going on 6 years now. I moved to this gorgeous state along with my beautiful husky Lexi, who is 6 years old. We love doing long distance hiking, and trail biking. Lexi loves to lead the way and I follow. We also enjoy thru-hiking. We have hiked the Colorado Trail up to Twin Lakes and plan to complete the rest hopefully next summer. Lexi loves to try new trails so she is all ears if anyone has some wonderful suggestions.

As for a little about my background, I am currently going through a total career change at the moment. I have been a paramedic for the past 10 years where I practiced emergency medicine in 911 for 5 years and was a flight paramedic for the 4 corners region for a year as well. I came to Colorado practicing emergency medicine but realized during COVID, though I loved what I did, it was not my passion. There was something else speaking to me, and it was the universe and the stars. I realized where my heart was and made the change to become an astrophysicist. I am currently a dual-enrolled student at ACC and CU Boulder where I am pursuing my degree in astrophysics with a minor in quantum engineering. I plan to pursue my doctorate at CU Boulder as well so I hope this is just the beginning with you all.

View Michael's elevator speech [YouTube]

View Michael's RECCS 2023 presentation [Youtube]

View Michael's poster [PDF]