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This article profiles Sixto Gonzalez, who is the director of Arecibo Observatory, located in Puerto Rico. He left Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his native Puerto Rico, midway, through his undergraduate education. As an undergraduate, he was able to present papers at international conferences based on his findings at Arecibo. As a graduate student, he was able to base his thesis on data he gleaned from a summer spent at the observatory. And as a postgraduate, his familiarity with the instrumentation at Arecibo, led him to getting a job there, making him the first native-born Puerto Rican to become a staff scientist at the facility. His latest appointment extends that honor to the directorship of the observatory, where he sees his role as helping people to deal with the difficulties he faced earlier in his career at MIT.

Examines the electrical discharge from a thundercloud top to the lower ionosphere at the Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico. Identification of two vertical extensive optical flashes above the thunderclouds; Establishment of direct path for electrical contact; Speculation on the component of global electric circuit.