When most of us who’ve been at TLU over the past few years think of Ezra Acero, we picture him in the air, swooshing over the crossbar, making the whole pole-vaulting thing look effortless. Acero did, in fact, end his Bulldog Athletics career as the best pole vaulter in Texas Lutheran history, setting records at both indoor and outdoor events and proving himself to be a champion multiple times.
The 2025 grad’s favorite college memory might surprise some, because it happened on a day that didn’t go exactly as he would’ve liked it to. “I think my favorite memory would have to be the first time I qualified for nationals in pole vault,” Acero says. “It was held in Rochester, New York, and although I didn’t get the results I wanted, just being there with my teammates and going to Niagara Falls with Coach Holland and Coach Wolf will always stick with me.”
These days, Acero, who earned his BS in applied physics at TLU, lives just under six hundred miles south of where that memory was made, in Indianapolis, Indiana. “I do miss Texas quite a bit (the food quite a lot),” he admits, although he’s made friends in his new locale, which has helped him feel at home. But even though his current life is a world away from Seguin and TLU, his work there is touched by his undergrad years.
He works as a biochemist for Lilly—also known as Eli Lilly and Company—by way of a global testing company called Eurofins PSS. “At Lilly I work in the raw materials lab where I run samples using various methods such as FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), Raman Spectroscopy, Gas Chromatography, Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy, Melting Point Analysis, and pH measurement,” he explains.
And believe it or not, that work connects to his capstone project at TLU. “My capstone was about Surface Modified Gold Nanoparticles for biomedical applications. While working on that project I learned a lot of lab techniques that have been very helpful in the job I currently have. Although I am still waiting to get my training passed through Lilly, I feel like my project prepared me the most for the wet chemistry tests that I will be running here in the lab soon.”
But even as he rises to new heights career-wise, Acero expresses gratitude for how his undergrad years prepared him for the challenges that lie ahead.
TLU is famous for its small class sizes, which foster a sense of community in which students support one another. “My physics cohort such as Aaron Salinas, Khalen Wilkerson, Martin Ortega, Jason Castro, Adrian Martinez, Ian Wollard, and Luciano Trejo helped me get through the extremely challenging physics classes and sleepless nights, and if it wasn’t for them, I would not have graduated,” Acero says.
He also points to the faculty at TLU as being instrumental in his success. “I feel that the TLU Physics Department, mostly Dr.Sauncy, Dr.Berggren, and Dr.Tek, prepared me very well for the real world past college,” he says. “The time and effort that they put in to change me from just a normal kid into a scientist is something that I will always be grateful for.”
[Feature photo: Ezra Acero (center) with roommate Jackson (left) and brother Seth (right)]
