News: page 10

This Fall, I will start my Ph.D in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. I was admitted to the City College of New York in 2015 with the goal to pursue physics for my bachelor’s degree. When I was a sophomore, I declared my major to be physics but I felt unsatisfied to leave mathematics. A few days later, I declared my second major to be math with a concentration in pure mathematics. Pursuing a double major in physics and mathematics at CCNY opened the door for me to meet with a lot of people from whom I have learned a lot in and outside of academia.

I want to thank my research supervisor, Professor Alexios Polychronakos, for giving me the opportunity to perform my honors thesis under his invaluable guidance. He has taught me how to be resilient and how to overcome frustration. His sincerity, kindness, and love for physics have inspired me. Also, thanks to Professor Parameswaran Nair for giving me the chance to conduct two independent studies over the topic of particle physics and for the invaluable discussions I had with him, which opened a new door of interest to me in physics.

I would also like to thank Professor Christian Wolf from the Mathematics Department for showing me the beauty of mathematics and for his support in graduate school applications. His enthusiasm and motivation towards mathematics have inspired me. I am thankful for all the support and guidance he had offered me in these past two years.

I would be a remiss if I didn’t mention Professor Timothy Boyer who has been my role model as an amazing instructor. I am deeply grateful to have learned from him how to be an advocate for one’s opinion in science even if it is against the flow. I also want to thank Dr. James Hedberg, Professor Joel Gersten, Professor Alexander Punnose and Professor Joseph Bak for their council and advice throughout the past 5 years.

I also want to thank my cohort in the physics and the math department for being who they are. I honored to be one of them, as they were very encouraging, loving, and wonderful colleagues in every meaning of the word.

I am grateful for the people who gave me opportunities, and I regret that I couldn’t thank each one of them as I have intended to do so. Lastly and above everything, I want to thank god for the love, support and guidance he has given me to pursue this academic path against all odds set before me. And also for giving me the opportunity to meet those wonderful people and be a part of the CCNY community, which has offered me more than what I have dreamed of as an immigrant wishing to study physics. I appreciate every single moment I was able to go to school and be part of such a wonderful community. With that said, I am looking forward to joining UT Austin’s community and I am excited to see what UT Austin is holding for me.

Joseph Winter graduated from CCNY in 2019 with a M.S. in mathematics. He is now working as a data scientist with Moat!

Hear about it from Joseph himself!

I completed the Master’s program in the CCNY Department of Mathematics in the spring of 2019. After graduation, I did research with Professor Christian Wolf over the summer, where I honed some computer programming skills as a resident at the Recurse Center in the early fall, and then found a job as a Data Scientist at Moat.

Moat primarily does measurement and analytics for online/digital advertising. My specific team is research oriented: we try to discover and implement new methods for detecting ‘invalid traffic’ (which includes both benign bots and active fraud operations). A lot of the math that I make use of as a data science is statistics (ironically, a course I never took at CCNY!), but I think the range of graduate-level work in mathematics gave me the confidence to approach difficult technical questions.

Math in ad-tech is certainly not always the most sophisticated, but I think my research experience and coursework at City allows me to tackle more interesting problems and understand the tools of data science more deeply, ultimately making me better at my job. There a quite a few math people on my team at work: we read and share mathematical papers on a regular basis. One of my projects currently involves reconstructing continuous gestures made by mobile devices from discrete data, a project where I’ve applied both algebra (group theory) and analysis. I feel luck that even working in industry, I found a place where I can explore open-ended questions.

I came to CCNY more than decade after I finished my previous degrees in Art. In 2016/17, I took a few semesters of calculus along with linear algebra at Laguardia Community College, and all of a sudden I found myself in a mathematics graduate program! I love that the CCNY gives people from unconventional backgrounds a chance to dive into math. The affordability and evening-centric course schedule of the MS program are only outshined by its talented faculty. After spending a few weeks in a classroom with Professors Zajj Daugherty and Christian Wolf (with whom I worked for 2 and 4 semesters, respectively), I knew I was in the exact right place. Thank you for your wisdom, guidance, and encouragement.

This fall, I will start my Ph.D in math at the University of Illinois Chicago. I entered the masters program at City College thinking I wanted to do applied work; my motivation for studying math was to build a theoretical foundation to work in climate research. Under the guidance and support of the professors here, I became more interested in theoretical coursework, and decided to pursue a doctorate degree in math.

I have experienced both intellectual and personal growth while at CCNY; I attribute this to the wonderful people here. The student body is diverse in every sense, and I have become friends with people of exceptional backgrounds and varied interests. My perception of what mathematical research is and who can participate has changed for the better in my two years here.

There have been many people who helped me along the way. I am particularly thankful for: Jason Redman who has been a cheerleader and ally; Prof Wolf who has been nothing but enthusiastic and encouraging; Prof Daugherty who has been a great source of advice, both personal and for AWM; and Prof Hanson who helped spark my interest in probability theory, and who has been a kind and patient mentor through my application process and our remote independent study. I regret not being able to thank each of you in person.

Finishing my degree remotely has been a strange way to close this chapter, and this makes me think about how fundamental the community around school is to my academic journey. The flavor of math is different when you sit alone at a desk from when you sit in a room together with peers. With this in mind, I look forward to entering a new community, and I am excited to see in what directions UIC takes me.

I had a rough start as an undergraduate at CCNY, but I was able to pick myself up from the mistakes that I made during my first year. My desire to study mathematics and all the people that have supported me throughout my undergraduate years, helped me get this far. I am now graduating soon, and this fall I will be starting my Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I want to thank Tai-Danae Bradley for the push she gave me in the summer of my freshman year to start thinking about my future goals in mathematics. She led me to Jason Redman, who helped me select a suitable mentor for me. I want to thank Jason for all his help as well. Because of Jason, I was able to learn about many opportunities that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. I want to give a very huge thanks to Professor Khalid Bou-Rabee for mentoring me for several years during my undergraduate years, and for believing in me and helping me lift myself up when I was struggling. A huge portion of my success is due to Professor Bou-Rabee’s mentorship. I also want to thank all the professors who have taught me during my years at CCNY. I learned a lot from their lectures and I appreciated every faculty member’s unique teaching style. I am so glad to have been a student at CCNY for the past four years.

I also want to thank my closest friend, Cristian, and my family for their continued support throughout my undergraduate years. Emotional support is just as important as academic support and I am grateful to have had both.

I wish success to all the graduating seniors from CCNY who are going to start on their Ph.D.’s this fall. Best of luck to us!

My name is Abdoulaye Maiga, and I will be graduating during this Spring of 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in pure mathematics. My journey as an undergraduate student at CCNY began during the Fall of 2016. At the time, I was already very motivated to learn more about the topic that excited me the most since high school. Inspired by my cousin, who also studied mathematics, I became more and more interested in using mathematics to solve problems in related fields such as biology and physics.

Before even declaring my major, the department of mathematics already seemed to have adopted me as one of their own. I was very lucky to meet early in my education incredible people such as Dr. Michael Shub, Dr. Joseph Bak, Jason Redman, George Brathwaite, and everyone else that I did not mention who informed me about various opportunities I could get if I was able to maintain a good academic standard.

I want to personally thank Dr. Michael Shub who decided very early to become my mentor and introduced me to Math Alliance. I cannot thank him enough for everything he has done for me. I also want to personally thank Dr. Christian Wolf, Dr. Patrick Hooper, and Dr. Joseph Bak for all their help, guidance, and for believing in me. I never thought that I could be calm and relaxed while talking to a Professor, but I was very comfortable talking to all of you.

The department of mathematics here at CCNY is composed of an amazing group of people, from faculty to staff, who will believe in you. They will do their best to provide you with all the resources you need to reach your goals and be successful. Thanks to Dr. Khalid Bou-Rabee, Dr. Patrick Hooper, Dr. Michael Shub, and Dr. Christian Wolf, I was always able to expand my knowledge of mathematics through independent studies, summer internships, and a summer school.

Thanks to Professor Elizabeth Blair Davey who taught me to be rigorous in mathematics since Calculus 1. I cannot forget to thank Dr. Eli Amzallag for his great lectures, and my favorite teacher and role model Gennady Yassiyevich. I am really going to miss everyone I have met at the department. This is not a goodbye, but a see you soon.

A very important chapter is coming to the end, and a new one is about to open. I have chosen to join Rochester Institute of Technology in the Fall for a Ph.D. in Mathematical modeling to make my dreams come true, but CCNY will always occupy a special place in my life in general, and in my education in particular. Without all the support I received here at CCNY, I wouldn’t have been able to become a future Ph.D. student by myself. I am grateful to have made friends that share the same passion here. Karoline Dubin, Pavel Javornik, Sarah Van, Vincent Filardi, Junjie Chen, Ana Tao, I wish you all the best in your programs and I am sure that we will all do our best to make CCNY proud of us.