Ricardo Perez grew up on a ranch near a small town called Freer in South Texas. Raising himself from a young age, trauma seemed to be the only constant in his life. After having to do detention to graduate high school in 2004 and a failed stint at community college, he joined the US Army in 2006 as an Infantryman. After completing Basic and Airborne Training in Georgia, he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington as one of the first soldiers in a new unit, the 5th Brigade 2nd Infantry Division. After a grueling 3-day tryout, he was selected to serve as a Sniper for his battalion, the 1st Battalion 17th Infantry Regiment “Buffaloes.”
After learning the medical retirement process would take TWO YEARS, Ricardo voluntarily withdrew from the medical evaluation to save what little sanity he had left and was honorably discharged in 2010.
Since then, Ricardo has been on an academic journey in which he earned:
- Bachelor’s Degrees in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry (Texas A&M University-Kingsville 2016)
- Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship (University of Washington-Seattle 2020)
- Currently Pursuing a Ph.D. in Human Genetics (University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley 2026)
Before being accepted into the Ph.D. program, Ricardo worked as a Research Scientist at The University of Washington Virology Department on the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) team, sequencing different viruses and SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus) for their variants.
From Sniper To Scientist