How/Why Research? I have always been interested in research because of a desire to push the boundaries of human knowledge and to contribute advances to scientific fields that help create a better and healthier society, such as epidemiology. I got involved with research at UNC by emailing professors whose classes I have been in to request enrollment in independent study and guided research courses under their supervision.
Research Experience: Prior to my time at UNC, I was part of the honor’s program at Wake Technical Community College, where I completed a year-long research project on the application of discrete Fourier transformations to modeling of physical systems. At UNC, I first worked on a project under Dr. Idris Assani in Mathematics, which explored the properties of sequences related to the Collatz conjecture. Second and currently, I work on a project under Dr. Richard Smith and Dr. Eric Whitsel in Statistics and Operations Research and the Department of Epidemiology, which aims to model the geographic distribution of radon gas in the United States for epidemiologic risk assessment. Research allows me to explore areas of statistics that are not typically covered as part of an undergraduate degree in statistics, which has been quite exciting. Another benefit of research experience is that it serves as a significant creative outlet; there are no wrong answers, only unoptimized solutions!
Student Organizations/Clubs: Kappa Theta Pi, Carolina Analytics and Data Science, Carolina Wrestling Club, Carolina Barbell
Also Happy to Chat about: Summer Research, Carolina Research Scholars Program
Random Fun Fact: I am an avid powerlifter and martial artist!