Computational materials scientistEnergy policy analystApprentice-level seeker
I modeled how matter organizes itself, now I analyze and manage how energy can be better delivered, and I try to take the old wisdom traditions seriously enough to test them in practice.
01
I finished my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in the Riggleman Lab, modeling how molecular-level ordering shapes the mesoscale structures that emerge during phase separation — and how nanoparticle fillers can be used to tune the structure of phase-separating polymer blends.
Following curiosity has led me to cast a wider net than purely physical matter. Since 2020 I've been studying the metaphysical, and I've come away convinced that the mystery schools, the ancient wisdom traditions, and the shamanic practitioners were onto something real with the idea that the metaphysical supersedes the physical. I try to embody what I learn through daily practice, not just to read about it.
Through the Eagleton Science and Politics Fellowship, I now work in the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities' Division of Clean Energy. Having lived through what Hurricane Maria did to Puerto Rico's fragile fossil-fuel-based grid, I wish to learn how regulatory policy can make access to the magic of energy more reliable, sustainable, and affordable.
What follows is an assortment of the bits and bobs that make up my story. I hope some of it earns me a fulfilling job, helpful advice, or constructive criticism.
01
Science without spirit is lame; spirit without science is blind. Neither is complete alone.
02
Human flourishing is the proper telos of science.
03
Future generations should inherit a better world from us.
02
01
Doctoral
University of Pennsylvania · Riggleman Group
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
My dissertation used MATILDA.FT — a hybrid particle-field molecular dynamics framework, GPU-native in CUDA/C++ — to study phase separation in structured fluids: liquid-crystal mesogens mixing with an isotropic fluid, and nanoparticles as a knob on the structural behavior of phase-separating polymer blends.
02
Policy
MIT Science Policy Review · Associate Editor
Science diplomacy case study, co-author
As an associate editor at the MIT Science Policy Review I worked on peer-reviewed analysis of emerging science and technology policy. I'm also co-authoring a science diplomacy case study on shared governance structures for One Health disease threats at the US–Mexico border.
03
Undergraduate
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Chemical Engineering
As first author I used Brownian dynamics to show that magnetic Janus colloids with off-center dipoles self-assemble differently depending on the dipolar shift — a single control knob over cluster size, morphology and aggregation kinetics. I also co-authored work applying positive-unlabeled machine learning to predict which proposed MXenes, and their precursor phases, are actually synthesizable.
Two species in a periodic cell, coarse-grained beads, held at the moment before the domains commit. Run the clock forward and the speckle becomes structure — coarsening is the whole story of the dissertation, watched one frame at a time.
OVITO render · MATILDA.FT trajectory
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04
2020–2026
PhD, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
University of Pennsylvania · Riggleman Group
2014–2019
BS, Chemical Engineering
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
2026–2027
Eagleton Science & Politics Fellow
NJ Board of Public Utilities · Division of Clean Energy
2024–2026
Author and Associate Editor
MIT Science Policy Review
2020–2026
Graduate Researcher
University of Pennsylvania
Dates are approximate where a role overlapped — the résumé has the exact record.
05
To serve as a credible bridge between the material and the metaphysical — using the rigor of science to take seriously what the wisdom traditions have long pointed at.
The three principles above are the short form. Lately I read reality mostly through Hermetic philosophy — the Corpus Hermeticum, the Renaissance synthesis in Agrippa, and the seven principles of the Kybalion — which I find genuinely resonant with my lived experience. I also have a cursory knowledge of astrology, numerology, tarot, psychology (mostly Jung, Adler, and Freud), different magic systems (Ceremonial, Chaos, Shamanism), Gnosticism, and other somewhat esoteric knowledge. Movement, breathwork and stillness are how the abstract gets embodied for me.
An evolving articulation, not a finished creed.
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Essays, videos and podcast appearances — archived here so they outlast the platforms that first hosted them.
07
Correspondence
ivanvegabellido@gmail.comProfiles
Located
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New Jersey, weekdays