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George Castro
George Castro was born and raised in Los Angeles. As a Mexican-American boy in an urban school, he was not encouraged to pursue classes that would prepare him for college such as mathematics and science. When his family moved out of the city temporarily, he was placed in an algebra class in his new suburban middle school, where he discovered that he was good at mathematics, and enjoyed solving complex problems. When his family moved back to East Los Angeles, George continued to take advanced mathematics. This decision instantly placed him with the "college-bound" students.As George began to consider possible college and career choices, he had few role models from his neighborhood or from his culture to emulate. "I had never seen a successful Mexican-American person who was not either a movie star or a businessman," he says. However, he continued to study math and science, earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles, and then a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California at Riverside. For several years he did research at other universities before he began his career at IBM.
George is married and has four grown children. Outside of work, he is busy with his family and community. He maintains strong connections to the Mexican-American community, both locally and nationally. He has volunteered his time as a mentor and as a teacher for high school and college students. He has received many honors for his volunteer work, including awards for "Outstanding Chicano in Santa Clara County," "Outstanding Innovation," and "Outstanding Community Service." He has twice received the Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science.
George retired from IBM after 25 years. The project presented in the BreakThrough program occupied his time for the past five years. It involves the development of a synchrotron, a machine that speeds up atomic particles to make highly accurate X-ray images of computer components. Today, he is the associate dean of the College of Science at San Jose State University, and continues to collaborate with his former colleagues at IBM.
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