About me
I am currently researching atmospheric physics and air quality modeling at the University of Toronto, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, with Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou.
Curriculum vitae
Education
University of Toronto 09/2016~04/2021
PhD in Physics
o Department of Physics, in the Atmospheric Physics Group with Professor Kimberly Strong (Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada)
o Fully funded direct entry PhD program
o Scholarships, fellowships, and awards: Cray Inc. Fellowships in Physics, Rao J. Polavarapu International Graduate Fellowship in Atmospheric Physics, Ted Mossman Memorial Graduate Fellowship, TEPS (Technologies for Exo-Planetary Science) program award
McGill University 09/2012-04/2016
Bachelor of Science – Joint Honours Mathematics and Physics
o First Class Honours Degree
o Scholarships: James McGill Scholarship, International Entrance Scholarship
o Program description by McGill University: "This is a specialized and demanding program intended for students who wish to develop a strong basis in both Mathematics and Physics in preparation for graduate work and a professional or academic career. Although the program is optimized for theoretical physics, it is broad enough and strong enough to prepare students for further study in either experimental physics or mathematics."
Teaching
Teaching Assistant in the Department of Physics
o Laboratory instructor and tutorial instructor position
o 900+ hours of experience, teaching classes for physicists, non-physicists, engineers, and life-science students
Skills
Proficient scientific programming knowledge in Python, basic programming knowledge in C++ (also see Projects section)
o Proficient in libraries including: NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn, Pandas
o Miscellaneous: BasicSQL knowledge(MySQL), comfortable in Linux and Unix shell
Data analysis knowledge and experience from 4+ years of applied physics research (also see Projects section)
o PhD research topics include: time series analysis, modeling, statistical analysis, and data assimilation
Outstanding problem solving and critical thinking skills developed by 6+ years of scientific research experience/training
Experienced in writing scientifically rigorous papers
o Garnered from writing 3 first author, peer-reviewed publications (see Projects section and Publications page)
Excellent ability to communicate complex ideas and topics in an efficient and coherent manner
o 900+ hours of teaching experience at the University of Toronto, teaching physics classes designed for physicists, engineers, life-science students, and other (not in science) students
Able to work well in collaborative projects, with people from different backgrounds and/or cultures
o Worked in an international collaborative project (with labs from France and Belgium), which resulted in a peer reviewed publication where I was the first author
Fluent in English and Japanese, beginner level French
o EIKEN Grade 1 certified
o Equivalent to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Level 1 (CEFR C1)
o Award of Excellence for Essay Writing (Yuushuu-award)
Proficient in LaTex document creation/editing
o All of my first author publications and PhD dissertation were written in LaTex
Projects
Time series analysis of atmospheric data: Created numerical models for trend analysis of 18 years of atmospheric data (Python, with NumPy, SciPy, Pandas)
o Used trended Fourier series to identify trends
o Employed statistical tools (e.g., bootstrapping and normality testing) for error analysis and to assess model performance
o Performed residual analysis to identify statistically significant enhancements
o Results published in peer reviewed journals, where I was the first author
o Presented results at more than 5 international conferences (see Talks section here)
Outlier detection algorithm for quality control: Independently developed and deployed an algorithm using machine learning to identify outlier data points in atmospheric observations for quality control (Python, with scikit-learn)
o Method was approved by the Chair of the University of Toronto Department of Physics, and is used in quality control of published data used by scientists worldwide (data available here)
Multi-scale dataset analysis and comparison: Assessed the performance of complex 3D global atmospheric models using 3 observational datasets (2 ground-based and 1 satellite data), and used the model to attribute sources of trends and enhancement events (Python)
o Results published in a peer reviewed journal, where I was the first author
o Presented results at 3 international conferences
o International collaborative effort with labs in France and Belgium
o This joint effort also resulted in another peer reviewed paper (I was third author)
Select personal/passion projects (working independently)
o Developed a stand-alone application for macOS with a GUI (simple app used for file management; I designed and created a rudimentary GUI, logo, and wrapped it as a “clickable” application) (Python)
o Using the experience from this project, I also led a team (of two others) in developing an application for macOS (grade calculation app designed for students planning for exams) (Python)
o Used data assimilation to analyze a nonlinear, chaotic system (Chua’s circuit) (Python) (also see my Personal projects page)