What's Your StORy?

What prompted you to enter this field? Why?
Necessity prompted me. After undergrad I knew what I did not want to do, but not much on what I wanted to do. Briefly, I didn’t want to work in an engineering setting or wear a formal shirt five times a week, and wanted to prolong my student life. My cousin told me to Google “what is O.R.” A semester in O.R. in grad school convinced me to move to a PhD and I’ve enjoyed it ever since.

What would you name the autobiography of your life?
I don’t think I’d ever be famous enough to write an autobiography!

If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor?
I’d stick to my advisor, David Morton. Sometimes your teachers create a lasting impression on you, on the way you think about problems, and on how you do academics. He tones down every conversation without the use of fancy math terms, to make it really simple to understand. I couldn’t have done much without a brilliant person like him at my back.

What was your best INFORMS experience?
I’ve only been to INFORMS twice yet, but the best so far was receiving a finalist prize for a student paper competition.

If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?
That is a top secret at the moment which I cannot share :)

What is the #1 most played song on your iPod?
"With or Without You" by U2, which I’m listening to as I type!

When I graduate, my perfect job would be...
A research job with a lot of freedom to pursue my own ideas; have a flexible schedule; do something that makes a difference to society… An academic setting sounds good to me at the moment, although I don’t rule out other jobs with these features.

Which celebrity do you get mistaken for?
When I had long hair some people said I look like Che Guevara. Now I’m planning to grow them long again!