WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2026 — Lucciana Mikaela Cáceres Holgado has been chosen as the recipient of the second annual Marian H. Rose Research Scholarship from the Society of Physics Students, an AIP organization. The scholarship honors Marian H. Rose, a career plasma physicist, author, and environmental activist, by providing one graduate student with $15,000 in grant funding.

“As an international student, Lucciana is an inspiring example of breaking barriers in the physical sciences,” said Jovonni Spinner, Career Opportunity and Advancement Officer at AIP. “She has given much to her SPS chapter at the University of Kansas, and SPS and AIP are honored to provide this scholarship to support her education.”

Cáceres Holgado is originally from Cusco, Peru, and is currently studying astronomy, physics, and astrobiology at the University of Kansas. When she was 17, she traveled thousands of miles to pursue her physics studies and immediately joined her university’s SPS chapter.

“I loved it since the very beginning,” Cáceres Holgado said. “I found my people in SPS, so I built a home there.”

Cáceres Holgado currently serves as the vice president for the University of Kansas’ SPS chapter. She leads outreach activities with local schools and enjoys giving back to a group of people who have supported her throughout her college education. She even had the opportunity to attend the 2025 Physics and Astronomy Congress in Denver, Colorado, with her chapter.

Her research spans the physical sciences. In one research group, Cáceres Holgado is assisting in engineering and testing electronic links to send to the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the world’s premier high-energy physics research center at CERN. She also spent a summer in Chile at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), which taught her the practical skills needed to identify chemical signatures in exoplanet atmospheres.

This inspired her current passion for exoplanet research, and in her personal research, she is working to characterize the atmosphere of the exoplanet known as Hot Jupiter TOI-2109 b.

“The ultra-Hot Jupiter is in the Hercules constellation and there are a few characteristics from this exoplanet that are very interesting,” Cáceres Holgado said. “I want to explore chemical and physical dynamics on the exoplanet related to its stellar dependency.”

Outside of her involvement in the physical sciences, Cáceres Holgado is an active member in the international community at her school. She is the vice president of the Peruvian Student Association and served as a 2024 International Orientation Leader.

As an international student, Cáceres Holgado was warned that finding U.S.-based opportunities and scholarships in her field would be “nearly impossible.”

“But, just as in physics, I decided to treat the ‘impossible’ as a problem to solve, not a barrier,” said Cáceres Holgado. “A year later, I had the opportunity to work at NOIRLab. That journey is a key reason I’m so grateful for this scholarship: Beyond the vital financial help, it is personal proof that ‘nearly impossible’ isn't a final answer, either in physics or in life.”

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