Ricco majored in astrophysics.
When he began the Nexus Scholars Program as a member of the inaugural cohort in 2022, Ricco Venterea ’24 was already set on pursuing a career in research.
“Participating in Nexus Scholars really solidified that viewpoint for me. During the academic year, I had to balance [research] with schoolwork. Nexus Scholars was the first time where the only thing I had to worry about was research. It was really fun and I was really productive, [solidifying] my drive to go to grad school.”
Ricco studied asteroids with Nicholas Battaglia, an Associate Professor in the Department of Astronomy. Battaglia, who works on cosmology, found asteroids with the telescope he was using to study early galaxies and the origins of the universe. Ricco combed through Battaglia’s datasets to find more information, ultimately producing two papers: one already published and another still in the works.
Since his time as a Nexus Scholar, Ricco has gone on to work with gravitational waves as a researcher at the University of Minnesota. Most recently, he was a Fulbright Scholar researching high energy particle physics and solar physics at the University of Perugia in Italy. In August, he will begin his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside.
A piece of advice Ricco would offer to current Nexus Scholars is to “have an open mind. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but also be willing to receive criticism.”
