Student, tutor, DJ, and next, TV star
Roberto Martinez can talk about quantum dots and string theory, electron transport and structures one-billionth of a meter in size. It's all in a day's work for the Harvard University graduate student, who is working toward his PhD in mathematical physics.
But now Martinez, 26, is about to bring it down to a level the average American can understand and even enjoy.
Martinez is about to become a reality TV star.
''They've got the tools. They've got the brains. And they've only got five days to replicate the wonders of the natural world," shouts a recent Animal Planet ad for the new show, called ''Chasing Nature."
It is, in a sense, ''Survivor" for really, really smart people, and when Martinez heard about it almost a year ago, he jumped at the idea of appearing on the show.
He may be smart, but he's also young and hip with a face made for television.
He may be a scientist, but he's also a disc jockey, a guy who plays his own house music in Boston-area clubs, then comes home to curl up with a nice, long article on, say, constructive quantum field theory.
He idolizes Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci, the late physicist Richard Feynman and the famous mathematical physicist Edward Witten -- people who, as Martinez sees it, gave everything to their craft. One day, if he's lucky, Martinez hopes, he will be like them. But first, there is his national television debut on Jan. 31, a chance to show off another side of science.
''I wanted to change the view of us, of what a scientist does, of what a scientist is," Martinez said. ''You're not this geeky kid who has no social skills, who does math with a pencil, drinking liters and liters of coffee, ranting, and flipping out later in life. That's not who we are. That's not real life."
In the show, a handful of the nation's top engineering students are asked to build something that is able to mimic an animal's natural-born abilities. In Martinez's case, the animal was a scorpion. The challenge: to construct, in less than five days, a functional, movable scorpion tail large enough to fit onto the back of a dune buggy. The students then had to use the tail in a final challenge to kill fake prey. Much drama -- or perhaps hilarity -- presumably ensues.
''They knew what they were doing," Martinez said. ''The production crew, the camera crew, the director, the producer -- they were looking for drama. They were looking for an engineer who would get pissed off and throw things."
To find out whether that happens to Martinez, tune in later this month. Friends are looking forward to it, and so is Martinez. To be on the show -- filmed on location in Australia -- he had to overcome his fear of flying and then find a way to get along with other engineering students under pressure and a tight deadline.
It was exciting, he said, and it has also opened unexpected doors. Martinez said he has already been contacted by another reality show, ''Beauty and the Geek," which is sort of like ''The Bachelor" for really, really smart people.
''I'd love to be on that kind of show," he said. But first, he's interested in seeing how this one turned out.
''They took 60 hours of film -- 60 hours of film -- and whittled it down to one hour," Martinez said. ''The things I say, the things I do, are really up to the editors. They could make me look like a fool or they could make me look like Edward Witten. I'll leave it up to them."
Home: Born and raised in Metairie, La., just outside New Orleans, and now living in Cambridge.
Family: Martinez's friends and family in New Orleans were displaced by Hurricane Katrina last fall and remain scattered across the United States as 2006 begins.
Education: Earned a bachelor's of science from Christian Brothers University in Memphis in 2002 and a master's in applied physics from Harvard University last year.
The show: Will air on Animal Planet channel Jan. 31 at 8 p.m.
His science: For his PhD, Martinez said he would like to try solving the Yang-Mills and Mass Gap Millennium Problem. The challenge: to find a mathematical explanation for a well-known but not totally understood theory about the mass of particles and their interactions. The person who can do it would win $1 million from the Cambridge-based Clay Mathematics Institute. Martinez said he wants to solve it for the sake of science. ''I'm not worried about the million dollars," he says. ''I'll give it back to the institute."
His fears: Martinez conceded that he doesn't really know why he's afraid to fly, given his understanding of the dynamics of flight. But he said it may have something to do with the increased levels of carbon dioxide found in airplanes. Studies have shown that higher levels can induce panic attacks in patients predisposed to anxiety.
