When I was little, I couldn't tell you what my favorite subject was, because I loved all of them. I excelled in math, read voraciously, wrote stories, studied history, built robots. When it came time to choose a major in college, I had a hard time settling on an area of study, bouncing between engineering, accounting, philosophy, and computer science without really finding my passion. It wasn't until I took an in-depth course in linear algebra with a professor that encouraged me that I realized what I wanted to study: mathematics. I quickly became enthralled with analysis and geometry - I consider myself a visual learner, and being able to transform words and symbols into shapes and lines was fascinating.
In my senior year, I began to look at graduate schools, and Washington State University seemed like a great fit. I reached out to Dr. Vixie to see if he was taking on any new students. He replied with what seemed like a novel of an email, listing five different textbooks I should read, and asking for my feedback on several papers. I responded with enthusiasm. In May of 2018, I received my Bachelor's degree in Pure Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Southern Maine and drove across the country, partner and cat in tow, to attend WSU for my PhD.
After passing my Graduate Qualifying Exam in January of 2019, I focused my studies with Dr. Vixie on measure theory, statistical learning theory, and information processing.
I eventually decided to shift my focus to computational mathematics and so I moved to the research groups of Serge Lapin and Daryl Deford, who cochaired my dissertation committee. I defended at the beginning of Fall 2023 and am now working in industry.
