A Nonlinear Path to Mathematics

I didn’t start college planning to become a mathematician. I majored in business and originally intended to become a lawyer. That changed when I took a mathematics course in my junior year and found myself wanting to learn more.

I added mathematics as a second major and took as many advanced courses as I could alongside the business curriculum. Real analysis, PDEs, topology, and abstract algebra began as subjects I was curious about; by my final semester, I had decided to pursue mathematics in graduate school.

After graduation, I spent a year in a master’s program before beginning my PhD. My interests continued to develop at Caltech as I explored different topics, eventually finding my way to mean-field limits, kinetic theory, and interacting particle systems.

My path has included a few turns. I like remembering that there is no single timetable for finding what you want to study, and that curiosity can take you somewhere you hadn’t planned to go.