Student Impact: Meet Lorenzo Minutolo
Student Impact: Meet Lorenzo Minutolo
Caltech Physics PhD Candidate Develops Instrumentation to Study Origins of the Universe
Lorenzo Minutolo, a physics PhD candidate in Professor Jamie Bock's BICEP Array lab, is grateful to donor support, which allows him to develop the technology to measure the parameters of the cosmic microwave background and expand our knowledge of the early universe.
Growing up in Italy, Lorenzo Minutolo (PhD '25, physics) never imagined his passion for science would lead him around the world and potentially all the way to the South Pole.
With drive, innovation, and tenacity, Lorenzo's hard work has taken him on an extraordinary journey. After completing his undergraduate studies in physics at Sapienza University of Rome, Lorenzo was recruited by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is managed by Caltech for NASA. His success in developing thermal kinetic inductance technology at JPL inspired him to pursue a PhD at the Institute.
Now, as a doctoral student in Caltech's BICEP Array lab, Lorenzo works with his supervisor Professor Jamie Bock to develop instrumentation to study polarization observations within the Cosmic Microwave Background. This new generation of instruments will search for inflationary gravitational waves on the BICEP Array telescope at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, helping to measure and expand our knowledge of the origins of the universe.
Lorenzo hopes his work will significantly improve the ability to capture images of that radiation at 150 GHz—a remarkable achievement. This endeavor is part of Caltech's legacy of pushing boundaries, even at the bottom of the globe.
Lorenzo is grateful for the valuable unrestricted support that maintains Caltech's students, faculty, and research at the forefront of their fields and keeps the Institute's competitive position in attracting the best minds so that students and faculty may pursue their groundbreaking work and contribute to the legacy of scientific discovery at Caltech.
Support other students like Lorenzo today by making an online gift through the Caltech Fund.