Jonathan was raised in Cancún, Mexico. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico). While in college, he was a team member of Professor Aída Gutiérrez-Alejandre’s group where he prepared diverse catalysts supports for fuel desulfurisation purposes. After that, he received his master’s degree in Chemical Biology from l’Université de Genève (University of Geneva). In Geneva, under the advisement of Professor Karsten Kruse, Jonathan studied theoretically the contraction dynamics of a poroelastic actomyosin sheet. In the fall of 2018, he joined the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago to pursue his PhD. He is now a PhD candidate under the advisement of Prof. Juan de Pablo. In his spare time, Jonathan enjoys watching art films, doing social volunteering, dancing, and spending time with friends.
Jonathan is interested in the theoretical and computational analysis of liquid crystals and active matter. Active matter is natural or artificial systems that convert free energy into mechanical work. Examples include living entities just as cytoskeleton biopolymers and bacterial suspensions, as well as synthetic systems, such as liquid crystals. Developing a general understanding of their structure in relation to the non-equilibrium physics would provide a route for potential applications and for their dynamical control.