Erin Busch: Staff

Graduate Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership, M.Ed.
Undergraduate Institution: California State University, Monterey Bay, Film and Television Production, B.A.
Department: Baskin Engineering Career Success

“My hope by building connections with industry is that it will help create pipelines for students and allow me to gain a deeper understanding of what companies are searching for in their applicants so I can better prepare students.”

Loren Matilsky: Postdoctoral Fellow

Loren Matilsky

Department: Applied Mathematics
Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University, Physics and Mathematics, A.B.
Graduate Institution: University of Colorado, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Ph.D.

“Something my dad always says is ‘Give yourself permission to fail.’ In other words, doing an experiment, you might mess up or go down a rabbit hole, but you should cross that bridge when you come to it, so don’t be afraid to try something new out.”

Aaron McPherson: Staff

Aaron McPherson, senior department manager, applied mathematics and statistics

Graduate Institution: Bowling Green State University, College Student Personnel, M.A.
Departments: Applied Mathematics and Statistics

“Coming from previous positions where I worked almost completely independently, the level of collaboration is one of the things I really enjoy about my department manager role.”

Haofan Cai: Alumna

Haofan Cai, Ph.D. alumna

Degree Program: Computer Science and Engineering, Ph.D.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Undergraduate Institution: Southern University of Science and Technology, China, Communications Engineering, B.S.
Advisor: Chen Qian

“The most important thing is to have confidence in yourself. Although you will encounter many challenges and become frustrated at times during your program, you need to remain confident in your capabilities as an engineer.”

Anuj Kumar: Alumnus

Anuj Kumar, Ph.D. applied mathematics alumnus

Degree Program: Applied Mathematics, Ph.D.
Department: Applied Mathematics
Undergraduate Institution:Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, Mechanical Engineering, B.S.
Graduate Institution: Indian Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Mechanical Engineering, M.S.
Advisor: Pascale Garaud

“One of the best parts of my research is getting to blend different interdisciplinary concepts together like math, engineering, and physics and collaborate with different researchers across different fields.”

Joseph Cruz: Alumnus

Joseph Cruz, alumnus

Degree Program: Biomolecular Engineering and Bioinformatics, B.S.
Department: Biomolecular Engineering
Hometown: Pomona, CA

“The thing I’ll miss most is working in Professor Rebecca DuBois’s Lab. I’m grateful for all the support and encouragement I received while conducting research in her lab.”

Alec Dektor: Alumnus

Alec Dektor

Degree Program: Applied Mathematics, Ph.D.
Department: Applied Mathematics
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Advisor: Daniele Venturi

“As a researcher, I am constantly trying to think of new ideas. Most of them take a lot of effort to explore and oftentimes they do not work. One day, I decided to carry out an idea that had popped into my head. I quickly coded it into my computer and pressed “run.” I sat there and watched the animations appear on the screen, proving that my new idea worked even better than I had anticipated. It was such a good feeling to achieve this research breakthrough from an original idea.”

Abigail Kaun: Staff

Abigail Kaun

Department: Baskin Engineering Dean’s Office
Graduate Institution: UCLA, Linguistics, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: UCSB, Linguistics, B.A.

“I’ve worked with students my whole career, in all sorts of settings and with all sorts of objectives in life, but I have never worked with students who were more creative, collaborative, and dedicated than the engineering students at UC Santa Cruz.”