Curriculum Vitae

Education

Awards

• Days of Applied Nonlinearity and Complexity (DANOC) Best Student Presentation Award 2026 - Given to the student with the best presentation at the DANOC conference.

• Henry Schaerf Mathematics Graduate Awards 2025 - Given to a graduate student who has demonstrated promise in their academic work.

• AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Award 2024 - For an exceptional student presentation at the AGU 2024 meeting.

• Outstanding Senior in Mathematics Award 2024 - UW La Crosse faculty chosen award given to an exceptional senior undergraduate in mathematics.

• Mathematics Honors Program 2023 - UW La Crosse honor for students with outstanding academic performance in their mathematics courses.

• Deans Distinguished Fellowship 2023 - UW La Crosse grant for summer research.

• JD and Marcia Wine Mathematics Award 2023 - UW La Crosse faculty chosen award for an outstanding Junior in mathematics

Grants

• I wrote a research proposal with Dr. Nan Chen for the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP), as a supplement to Dr. Nan Chen's Army Research Office (ARO) research grant, and the AEOP project was awarded. I am a senior personnel member and a mentor on this proposal. We received this grant to support the summer research for one high school student and one undergraduate student in 2026.

• I wrote a research proposal with Dr. James Peirce for the Intercollegiate Biomathematics Alliance (IBA) Biomathematics Education with Applications and Methods Grant from Illinois State. We received the grant for summer field work collecting sand crabs on the coast of California in 2023.

Projects

• Evaluate the baseline skill of sixteen different operational models in reproducing key ENSO diversity metrics.

• Use a latent data assimilation technique to provide targeted information to each model in order to improve individual dynamic processes. 

• Interpret data assimilation results to explore structural deficiencies in the operational models.

• Establish the minimum information incorporated via latent data assimilation required to obtain structural credibility.

• Use reservoir computing to represent complex nonlinear systems in a conditional Gaussian structure to maintain analytic tractability with very limited sacrifices in complexity.

• Implement reservoir computing specifically to incorporate memory effects naturally.

• Test the framework on a range of problems in comparison with the skill of other data assimilation algorithms.

• Analyzed and prepared observational and model generated data for El Nino Southern Oscillation as well as idealized model codes.

• Provided insight from the physical perspective to help design experiments.

• Learned the limitations of avaialable latent data assimilation frameworks.

• Learned about autoencoder implementations and long short term memory (LSTM) surrogate models.

• Helped make meaningful physical insights from the experiment results to better target biases in operational models through latent data assimilation with idealized models. 

• Applied Lagrangian Data Assimilation to reduce uncertainty in a test flow field.

• Derived the asymptotic behavior of the smoother covariance matrix when the number of tracers is large.

• Applied the OW parameter to the prior and posterior test flow field and examine their statistics.

• Derived an analytic formula for the variance of the OW parameter at each time and spatial point to enable a highly efficient framework for eddy identification.

• Utilized the derived asymptotic flow field variance and OW variance to examine the behavior of the uncertainty of the OW parameter.

• Examined the current literature on ENSO and MJO and how they impact each other.

• Studied low order stochastic models for MJO and ENSO to understand the importance and physical interpretation of each component.

• Coupled two low order models for MJO and ENSO.

• Used Matlab to run the model simulation and produce the results.

• Examined the role of each model component in the coupling and explained the physical interpretations of these mechanisms to establish a more thorough understanding of the interactions between MJO and ENSO.

• Constructed an Adult-Child compartment disease model.

• Used DAISY, SIAN in Maple, and IdentifiabilityAnalysis in Mathematica to determine the structural identifiability of the model with a variety of possible outputs.

• Determined parameter values through literature search and conducted a sensitivity analysis in Matlab on the basic reproductive number to establish plausible parameter ranges.

• Adapted a Monte Carlo approach to practical identifiability with a weighted least squares estimation technique in Matlab to the model.

• Formally summarized findings in a final report.

Mentoring Experience

• Co-mentor an undergraduate student, Daria Sevriukova, from the Wisconsin Science and Computing Emerging Research Stars (WISCERS) program. The research topic is theoretical analysis and numerical simulations for sea ice floe collisions. The work has been done. Currently, I am serving as a co-mentor to help the student write a paper aiming to the journal of SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO), which is a web-based publication devoted to undergraduate research in applied and computational mathematics.

• Co-mentoring a high school and undergraduate student on a research project in the summer of 2026 for the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP), as a supplement to Dr. Nan Chen's Army Research Office (ARO) research grant. There will be two main topics covered in this project: (1) we will develop a practical model error detection and correction framework using causal inference and (2) we will conduct systematic comparisons between low order models for El Nino Southern Oscillation.

Research Highlighted by the Media

• Bridging Idealized and Operational Models to Improve the Earth System Simulations

Featured by the SIAM Dynamical System Web 

https://dsweb.siam.org/Media-Gallery/bridging-idealized-and-operational-models-to-improve-the-earth-system-simulations} \end{itemize

Work Experience

• Conducting research for Dr. Nan Chen applying mathematics to problems in Atmospheric Science.

• Followed lesson plans and emphasized the crucial course topics.

• Managed groups of up to 35 students in discussions and lectures to facilitate learning.

• Encouraged creative thinking and problem solving by redirecting questions and asking leading questions, so students could understand the logic behind my answers.

• Evaluated and revised lesson plans and course content to achieve student-centered learning.

• Lead weekly activities and discussions about course content for groups of 3 to 35 undergraduate students.

• Promote the growth of independent learning skills by asking critical questions and showing them how to find the answers themselves.

• Work to build a supportive environment so students feel comfortable failing and view it as an opportunity to learn.

• Show students how math applies to their lives and interests.

• Tutored online in private sessions using detailed lesson plans.

• Worked with students from elementary school through high school at various stages of learning.

• Promoted interactive learning by using a combination of Socratic questioning and direct teaching.

• Cultivated a supportive and encouraging environment to promote excitement and combat fears of failure.

Technical Skills

Memberships

• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), including  SIAG on Uncertainty Quantification and SIAG on Mathematics of Planet Earth

• American Geophysical Union (AGU)

• National Society of Leadership and Success (a leadership program that helps students achieve personal growth, career success, and empowers them to have a positive impact in their communities)