Edmund Bertschinger
Pronouns:
he/him
Title: Professor of Physics
Briefly describe your journey to MIT? My childhood was divided between Oakland and Chino, California. Two different worlds united by family struggles including poverty. My mother was an immigrant with an eighth grade education. Perhaps 2% of my graduating class in high school went to college. Powered by a fierce determination to enter academia, I am the only one in my family who graduated from college and moved away. I overcame academic obstacles to graduate from Caltech in physics, earn a PhD in astrophysics from Princeton, and to pursue my dream of becoming a professor. Along the way I became an activist, a feminist, and a teacher and mentor. I wanted to provide for others some of the opportunities that were difficult for me to obtain.
How did being a FLI student impact your experience navigating higher education? I didn’t know details of applying to college and missed several application deadlines. I had no mentors and sought help frequently from peers who had more knowledge of the academic subjects and how the system worked. Eventually I began to feel some survivor guilt in leaving my family to enter a different world of much greater economic access.
What advise would you give yourself if you were able to go back and speak with the undergraduate version of yourself? Be kind to yourself. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Ask for help when you need it — even when you don’t think you do.
What advice would you give a current MIT student on navigating all the opportunities available to them at MIT? Seek advice from multiple sources including faculty. Don’t cram your schedule or your studies. You will likely learn more if you undertake a moderate load leaving time to refresh your mind, body and spirit. Ensure that at least 15% of your time is unscheduled and not needed for psetting. When opportunities arise that reduce that buffer, give up something else so that you continue to have unscheduled time. Get a UROP.
What is your favorite thing about MIT? Of course, it’s working with kind and brilliant people.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work/research? I love baking desserts mostly for a homeless shelter.