I always knew I would be a rockstar one day. I just didn’t know that it would be as a scientist. My first concert at 12 was Metallica, Candlebox, Suicidal Tendencies, and Fight at The University of New Mexico football stadium in 1992. Our parents didn’t allow us to listen to metal so we snuck out and got greyhound tickets to Burque.’ I am half Northern New Mexico Native American and half Spanish from Española. Growing up in the late 80’s, one of my elders introduced me to a band called Testament who is led by another native named Chuck Billy. They are the bedrock of my musical being (thank you Triple Thrash Threat for reinforcing that) along with Metallica. My books were covered in Testament and Metallica logos at school and I bribed my sister to pull out tapes like Souls of Black, Practice What You Preach, Blizzard of Oz, and …and justice for all. I started drumming in band at school and jamming in “Strangled Pussy” after. I was convinced that I would make it big one day. After High School if I stayed in NM, my life was set for nothing good. So at 17, I moved to Vegas, Nevada and got a job at The Hard Rock Cafe (1997-2003). The HRC was the spot in the late 90’s-2000’s for anything hard rock and I wanted to be in the middle. I worked as a buss boy for all the events at the Joint and served Motley Crew, Bill Murray…but it became clear that I was not going to make it as a musician. In fall 2008 at 27, I enrolled in my first classes at Northern New Mexico College back home in Española. I earned a two year degree in Renewable Energies. This is about the time I first remember a station called LiquidMetal that I would do homework to. Once I had a two year degree, I received an invitation from New Mexico State University to do a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology. In my 30’s by that time, I was older than most and it was the music that accompanied me through. In no way did I ever envision going to Purdue! But I applied and became part of the 3% of brown students there. I wrote a Masters Thesis on Botanical Air Filtration. Always wishing to work with NASA, in 2018 I got an internship with the plant science team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That turned into a full time job as a horticultural scientist and I contributed to 17 space biology experiments including growing the first fruit on the International Space Station, Española New Mexico Chile from my hometown. I even talked to you Jose from the lab during a Social Media hang during that time. I spent 24 months working alone in a NASA lab during COVID. You were doing the metal ambassador thing (as always). Your positivity carried me through and I used that energy to build a community around the space chile mission. I started a Facebook page in 2020 and became Jacob Pepperseed sending Chile seeds to kids to participate in science. My dream is to finish school so I made a bold move in 2023 to leave my NASA role to start a PhD at UNM. So I am on my own again, applying for scholarships, fellowships for next year and have half of the $39K FAFSA determined as my need for this year. My fall back plan is to get student loans to fill in the difference. My research is a multi disciplinary effort through Engineering, Biology, and Humanities to inspire kids in the state that ranks 50th in K-12 education. Largely minority, the aim is to help kids love school through an idea of sending Chile to the moon. What science can they generate along the way? My vision is to do this representing Headbang For Science and show the world what a determined metalero can do.