Early On
I was born in Yonkers, New York but my family moved to Amman, Jordan (Middle East) when I was two years old. I completed high school in Jordan and shortly after that I returned to the US to begin my higher education. While in Jordan I was active in the Boy Scouts, soccer (we call it football though), and basketball.
Education
In 1991, I received my A.S. degree from Victor Valley College and transferred to the University of Cal, Irvine to study electrical engineering, but shortly after that I discovered that I would rather study mathematics. In 1994, I graduated with a B.S. in mathematics, with an emphasis in applied mathematics, from UCI. I began my graduate work in mathematics at Northern Arizona University in 1997. I received my M.S. in mathematics from NAU in August, 2000. My thesis project dealt with finding numerical solutions to nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations. My thesis advisor was Dr. John Neuberger along with committee members Dr. James Swift and Dr. Lawrence Perko.
I studied physics at Cal. State University, San Bernardino. While studying physics, I got a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts frequently used in studying physical phenomenon and solving physical problems. Through studying physics, I strengthened my love for mathematics and its beauty as well as gained a special interest in physics and its importance in our daily life. While at CSUSB, I had the pleasure of taking Dr. Renteln, Dr. Usher, Dr. Kolehmainen, and Dr. Dixon. I learned from each one of them about physics (of course), but more importantly, about being a professor.
In the summer of 2022, I began a Faculty Training Program (FTP) at the Artificial Intelligence Institute for Advances in Optimization (AI4OPT) at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GA Tech). The program is for three years. Training received was in software languages R and Python and topics included:
- Statistics with Python
- Data Engineering and Mining I
- Data Engineering and Mining II
- Machine Learning I
- Machine Learning II
- Generative Deep Learning
Interests
While attending NAU, I became interested in hiking. My greatest accomplishment as a hiker came on 10/17/1999 when I hiked the Grand Canyon from the South rim to the North rim. A hike which took 11.5 hours. It was the most difficult and most rewarding adventure I have experienced to date.
I LOVE reading, especially books relating to math, physics, math and/or physics education and the philosophy of science. I also enjoy listening to music and cooking.