Some students skip calculus class, even when required to attend. Valeria Diaz Moreno x’26 flipped that script: she snuck into a university calculus class before she was old enough to enroll.
Growing up in Medellín, Colombia, Moreno said, many schools tended to “place a lot of importance on the humanities,” rather than science and mathematics. “Physics and math were subjects that weren’t given a lot of emphasis, and when something seems a little more prohibited, it makes you a little more curious,” Moreno said.
Today, as a junior Data Science and Physics double major at UW–Madison, Moreno is combining a passion for physics with a love of coding, assisting with innovative quantum computing research. “Data science is like the best friend to my physics passion,” she said.
Outside of class, Moreno is involved in multiple organizations, including the Physics Club and WISCIENCE, where she mentors younger students in STEM fields. For her outstanding work both in her studies and around campus, she recently received the inaugural School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS) Deloitte Foundation Scholarship for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The scholarship, Moreno explained, “provides opportunities for people like me to pursue higher education and careers in technical fields where diversity is often lacking.”
Roots in STEM
Moreno moved back and forth twice from Colombia to the United States during her upbringing, eventually landing in Minnesota and attending White Bear Lake High School outside Minneapolis. One formative moment that she said “solidified” her love for physics was meeting the physicist Javier Santaolalla, who helped make the game-changing discovery of the Higgs boson, at an event in Colombia when she was a young student.
However, Moreno said, when the time came for college applications, she felt “unprepared,” having not been exposed to the complex and convoluted process for as long as most US high schoolers. “I didn’t know what AP classes were. I didn’t have a GPA. I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she admitted. “So I decided to start out by going to a community college.”
During her two years at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN, Moreno took physics courses and found a deeper passion for the subject than she expected. The classes there, she said, were “tailored to you and your learning style … they allowed me to study the things I enjoyed most.” That’s when she began researching physics programs around the country, landing on UW–Madison as her top choice over MIT and others. She applied as a transfer student and moved to Madison in 2023.
‘To solve harder problems’
As a sophomore at UW, Moreno discovered the Data Science major and found it to be a perfect complement to Physics. “When you’re doing physics research, you need to be able to manipulate your computer in such a way that your data is telling you something,” she said. “I can understand physics better through code.”
The lab Moreno joined conducts research on theoretical quantum computing, led by Professor Maxim Vavilov of the Department of Physics. Through this research, Moreno is learning the coding techniques for simulating different theories in quantum computing, including what she called a “hot new qubit” (a qubit is a unit of quantum information) known as fluxonium, which could help unlock quantum computing in practice, not just theory.
Such a breakthrough could have massive implications for computing across all fields. A quantum computer “would have much higher speed,” Moreno said, “and because these computers will be significantly more efficient, they’ll be able to solve harder problems.” She added, “Quantum computing will help not only physics, but it will help other areas,” including cryptography, with businesses looking to use these leading-edge techniques to protect the security of their information.
Moreno is eager to dive deeper into the world of quantum computing, both in future courses and through research. “I really hope to learn more in depth about the impact of what we’re doing on society,” Moreno explained. “I also want to be able to make this information accessible to people and companies, and to make quantum [computing] something that is not just gate-kept in the scientific community, but is more widely understood.”
Earning a CDIS scholarship
This year, CDIS offered several new scholarships to students from across the Departments of Statistics, Computer Sciences and Information School. Moreno received one of them: the Deloitte Foundation Scholarship for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She noted that with all of the time she spends on academic pursuits, she wishes she had more time to “engage in activities to connect with other people who look like me.” The scholarship, she explained, enables her to honor her background even without joining every club she wants to join.
“I say to myself ‘Maybe you weren’t able to participate in these multicultural clubs that you would love to be part of, but you’re representing the Latinx community in another way, by being in these technical fields, and advancing in them,’” she said. “That’s my way of giving back to my community.”
She has also become a mentor to other students, including by serving as a Peer Leader for WISCIENCE, organizing accountability groups for younger students in STEM programs, encouraging them to study together and make the most of the UW–Madison student experience. Moreno says the Deloitte Foundation scholarship affirms her efforts to pave the way for more people with diverse backgrounds to pursue computing and data-centered fields.
“The recognition of my hard work encourages me to strive for excellence and to be a role model for other young women of color pursuing careers in computer and data sciences,” Moreno said.