Gabriel Vega Bellido

Computational Materials Scientist. Energy Policy Analyst. Apprentice-Level Seeker.

Computational Materials Scientist, Energy Policy Analyst, Apprentice-level Seeker.

View Research About Me
01

About

I'm a computational materials scientist that completed my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania (Riggleman Group), where I modeled how molecular-level ordering affected the mesoscale structures formed during phase separation and how nanoparticle fillings can tune the structure of phase separating polymer blends.

Following my curiosity has led me to cast a wider net than purely physical matters, leading me to look into the realm of the metaphysical. This exploration has occupied me since 2020, and has convinced me that all these mystery schools, ancient wisdom traditions, and shamanic practitioners were definitely onto something. I try to embody what I've learned through daily practice.

Through the Eagleton Science and Politics Fellowship, I have been given the opportunity to work in the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities' Division of Clean Energy. After having lived through the impacts of Hurricane Maria on the fragile fossil-fuel-based system in Puerto Rico, I am eager to learn how an electrical grid can be made more reliable, sustainable, and affordable.

Below you will find an assortment of the bits and bobs that make up my story, I sincerely hope they will convince you to offer me a fulfilling job, helpful advice, or constructive feedback.

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Research

Doctoral Research

Modeling Mesoscale Phase Separation in Structured Fluids and Nanoparticle-filled polymer blends

University of Pennsylvania · Riggleman Group
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

My dissertation used MATILDA.FT — a hybrid particle-field molecular dynamics framework with GPU-native CUDA/C++ — to study phase separation in structured fluids, particularly liquid crystal mesogens mixing with isotropic fluid, and nanoparticles as a way to tune the structural behavior of phase separating polymer blends.

  • Smectic order emergence
  • Domain coarsening dynamics
  • Nanoparticle-filled polymer blends
  • Microstructural rearrangement
Science Policy and Diplomacy Writing

Policy & Diplomacy

MIT Science Policy Review · Associate Editor, Science Dipomacy Case Study Co-author

I served as an associate editor at MIT Science Policy Review, working on peer-reviewed analysis of emerging science and technology policy. I've also worked on a science diplomacy case study about the advantages of shared governance structures for combating One Health disease threats at the US-Mexico border (in progress).

  • Editorial review
  • Science and technology policy
  • US-Mexico science diplomacy study
  • One Health Disease Management
Undergraduate Research

Magnetic Colloid Self-Assembly & Machine-Learned Synthesizability

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
Department of Chemical Engineering

My undergraduate research led to two publications. As first author, I used Brownian dynamics simulations to study how magnetic Janus colloids with off-center ("shifted") dipoles self-assemble, showing that the dipolar shift acts as a control knob over cluster size, morphology, and aggregation kinetics. I also co-authored work with Nathan Frey applying positive and unlabeled machine learning to predict which theoretically proposed MXenes — and their precursor phases — are most likely to be synthesizable in the lab.

  • Brownian dynamics
  • Magnetic Janus colloids
  • Positive-unlabeled learning
  • MXene synthesizability
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Telos

Telos — the end toward which a thing aims. What follows is mine, stated plainly. It's a strange thing to put on the internet, but naming the aim is how I stay accountable to it.

Mission

M0

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.

Principles

1

Science without spirit is lame; spirit without science is blind. Neither is complete alone.

2

Human flourishing is the proper telos of science.

3

Future generations should inherit a better world from us.

Framework

Lately I've mostly read reality through the lens of Hermetic philosophy — the Corpus Hermeticum, the Renaissance synthesis (Agrippa), and the Seven Principles of the Kybalion — which I find genuinely resonant with my lived experience. This is my attempt to balance matter with minds, souls, and spirits. The practices which help me embody abstract metaphysical knowledge: movement, breathwork, and stillness.

This is an evolving articulation, not a finished creed.

04

Media

Past essays, videos, and podcasts — each archived here so it outlasts the platforms that first hosted it.

Browse all media & media
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Contact

Correspondence

ivanvegabellido@gmail.com

Profiles

Located

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania