UCI MathBridge Program

Selected Alumni Profiles

Refer to this link for a complete list of former graduate students and their last known employment.

Daniel Agress (Alumni Talk Fall 2021)

Daniel Agress obtained his BS in Mathematics from UCLA in 2012 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2020. He currently works as a Numerical Analyst performing orbit determination for The Aerospace Corporation.

Kelly Isham (Alumni Talk Fall 2022)

Kelly Isham obtained her BA in mathematics from Skidmore College in 2016 and her PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2021 under the supervision of Nathan Kaplan. Kelly is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Colgate University.

Katie Rainey

Dr. Katie Rainey is a Research Scientist at Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific in the area of machine learning and artificial intelligence. She works to direct research to support defense applications, and is active in building the community of AI researchers among defense laboratories. She is the founding co-chair of the annual workshop on Naval Applications of Machine Learning, one of the largest technical exchanges on artificial intelligence in the DoD. She has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Irvine.

Frank Lin

Frank Lin obtained his BA in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2012 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2021. He currently works as an Financial Engineer in the Risk Division of Goldman Sachs.

Boya Liu

Boya Liu received his BS in Mathematics from UCLA in 2014 and PhD in mathematics in 2020. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at North Carolina State University with research on inverse problems that arise from both medical imaging and seismic imaging.

Min Wu

Min Wu is an Assistant Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research centers on developing mathematical models and numerical methods to understand growth and morphogenesis in living systems. She obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from UCI in 2012 under the supervision of John Lowengrub. She was also a postdoctoral researcher at École Normale Supérieure and a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern University.

Li Kong

Li is currently a Quantitative Analyst in Wells Fargo. In her work, she builds mathematical modeling to project the counterparty credit risk in the future. She obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from UCI in 2012 under the supervision of professor Knut Solna.

Amir Vig

Amir Vig is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan working in spectral theory, dynamics and geometry. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Montreal, QC and Institute of Science and Technology in Vienna, Austria. He obtained his PhD in mathematics from UCI in 2020 under the supervision of Hamid Hezari.

Jesse Kreger

Jesse Kreger obtained his BA in mathematics from Occidental College in 2016 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2021. He currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology at the University of Southern California studying cell dynamics.

Melinda Schulteis

Melinda Schulteis obtained her BA in mathematics from Concordia University, Irvine in 1995, and her PhD in mathematics from UCI in 2004 under the supervision of Svetlana Jitomirskaya. Melinda is a Professor of Mathematics at Concordia University, Irvine.

Anna Konstorum

Anna Konstorum is a Research Staff Member at the Center for Computing Sciences, Institute for Defense Analyses. She also holds a Courtesy Professor appointment in the Laboratory for Systems Medicine at the University of Florida. Her research is focused on developing matrix- and tensor-decomposition approaches for complex datasets arising from diverse applications in defense and the natural sciences. She obtained her PhD in Mathematics from UC Irvine in 2015 under the supervision of Professor John Lowengrub.

Lei Ni

I received my PhD in 1998 from UCI with Professor Peter Li. Was research assistant professor at Purdue and Szego assistant professor at Stanford before I joined UC San Diego, where I am a Professor.

John (Nick) Treuer

John Treuer obtained his Ph.D. in complex analysis and Several Complex Variables from UCI in 2021 under the supervision of Song-Ying Li. He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University studying Several Complex Variables.

Cynthia Northrup

Cynthia Northrup is a Product Manager at Netflix Games, previously working at Blizzard Entertainment. She received her Ph.D. from UCI under the supervision of Martin Zeman, serving as a Pedagogical Fellow and an ARCS scholar.

Frederi Viens

Frederi Viens obtained an MS in Mathematics from UC Irvine in 1991, and a Maitrise de Mathematiques Pures from the University of Paris 7 in the same year. He received his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1996. He is currently a Professor in the department of Statistics at Rice University in Houston, TX; his research spans probability and stochastic processes, applications in finance and insurance, and applied Bayesian work in agroecology and in nuclear physics.

Meng Yu

Meng Yu is currently a Principal Research Scientist at Tencent AI Lab working on audio and speech signal processing. He obtained his BS in mathematics from Peking University in 2007 and his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2012 under the supervision of Jack Xin.

Shoo Seto

Shoo Seto is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at California State University, Fullerton. He obtained his PhD in Mathematics at UC Irvine in 2015 under the supervision of Zhiqin Lu. His research interests lie in differential geometry and geometric analysis.

Monroe Eskew

Monroe Eskew obtained his BA in mathematics and philosophy from Rice University in 2005 and his PhD in mathematics from UCI in 2014. He is currently a Senior Postdoc at the University of Vienna, where he works in set theory.

Andrés Forero

Andrés Forero obtained his PhD from UC Irvine in 2015 in Set Theory. After that, he has been working in mathematical education, ranging from curriculum creation, translation, and adaptation, as well as teacher training for K-12. Currently, he is an Academic Coordinator of UC Irvine Math CEO, and lives in Colombia.

Hao Gao

Hao Gao is an Associate Professor and Director of Physics Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Kansas, working on computational methods for cancer radiation therapy, including treatment planning and optimization, image processing and reconstruction, computational biology, numerical PDE and inverse problems. He received BS in physics from USTC and PhD in computational mathematics from UCI in 2010 with Prof. Hongkai Zhao.

Kyriakos Kypriotakis

Kyriakos Kypriotakis obtained his BA in mathematics from University of Athens in Greece, and his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2009 under the supervision of Martin Zeman. Kyriakos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Joliet Junior College, the first public community college founded in the United States.

William Pachas-Flores

William Pachas is a full-time faculty at Santa Monica College since 2013. He obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2012. His area of study was Probability Theory and Stochastic Analysis.

Songting Luo

Songting Luo is currently an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Iowa State University. His research focuses on mathematical modeling, numerical analysis and scientific computing, especially on wave-related problems and applications. He obtained B.S. in mathematics from USTC in China, and his M.S. and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2006 and 2009, respectively, under the supervision of Professor Hongkai Zhao.

Kameran Kolahi

Kameran Kolahi obtained his BS in mathematics from UCLA in 2014 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2020 under the supervision of Martin Zeman. Kameran currently works as a Data Scientist focusing on product and statistics for the tech company BOLD.

Jeff Matayoshi

Jeff Matayoshi is a Research Scientist at McGraw Hill ALEKS, where he works on the technology behind the ALEKS adaptive learning system. Supervised by Michael Cranston, he received his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2009.

Kwan-Hang Lam

Kwan-Hang Lam obtained his BSc in mathematics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Peter Li. Kwan-Hang has been a Professor of Liberal Art, Mathematics at the Savannah College of Art and Design since 2010. He is passionate about Mathematics education for non-math-major students and gifted education for young students.

Gregory Zitelli (Alumni Talk Winter 2022)

Greg Zitelli received his PhD in Mathematics from UCI in 2019. His doctoral work was in Random Matrix Theory, and focused on risk underestimation in portfolio optimization. Greg currently works as a Quant Engineer in systematic portfolio construction for Capital Group in Irvine.

Daniel Bergman

Daniel Bergman is a Postdoctoral Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan working in mathematical biology with a focus on cancer and immune dynamics. He received his PhD from UCI in 2020 under the supervision of Qing Nie.

Patrick Brockett

Patrick L. Brockett obtained his BA in mathematics from California State University Long Beach and his MA and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1975 under the supervision of Howard Tucker. He currently holds the Gus Wortham Chair in Risk Management at the University of Texas-Austin with joint Professor appointments in the departments of Finance, Mathematics, and Information, Risk and Operations Management. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and a Fellow of the Institute for Risk Management. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and a life member of the International Actuarial Association. He served as editor of The Journal of Risk and Insurance for 9 years, and currently he is Editor of the North American Actuarial Journal.

Yuyu (Luke) Peng

Yuyu Peng currently does Global Product Marketing at TikTok, previously worked at PayPal, eBay, Wish and founded several startups in the travel and eCommerce industry. He received his PhD from UCI in 2011 under the supervision of Qing Nie.

Burak Ozbagci

Burak Ozbagci obtained his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1999 under the supervision of Ronald J. Stern. Ozbagci is a Professor of Mathematics at Koç University, a leading foundation-supported, non-profit institution of higher education, located in Istanbul, Turkey. His area of research is symplectic and contact geometry and topology. Dr. Ozbagci was an invited speaker at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics, in 2021. He also served as the President of the Turkish Mathematical Society from 2019 until 2021.

Dana Clahane

Dana Clahane completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at UCI in 2000 under the supervision of Bernard Russo. During 2001-2004, he was an NSF VIGRE Postdoctoral Fellow in Mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington, and from 2005-2008, he served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at UCR. Currently, he is a Professor of Mathematics at Fullerton College.

Daniel Agress (Alumni Talk Fall 2021) Daniel Agress obtained his BS in Mathematics from UCLA in 2012 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2020. He currently works as a Numerical Analyst performing orbit determination for The Aerospace Corporation.	Kelly Isham (Alumni Talk Fall 2022) Kelly Isham obtained her BA in mathematics from Skidmore College in 2016 and her PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2021 under the supervision of Nathan Kaplan. Kelly is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Colgate University.
Katie Rainey Dr. Katie Rainey is a Research Scientist at Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific in the area of machine learning and artificial intelligence. She works to direct research to support defense applications, and is active in building the community of AI researchers among defense laboratories. She is the founding co-chair of the annual workshop on Naval Applications of Machine Learning, one of the largest technical exchanges on artificial intelligence in the DoD. She has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Irvine.	Frank Lin Frank Lin obtained his BA in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 2012 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2021. He currently works as an Financial Engineer in the Risk Division of Goldman Sachs.
Boya Liu Boya Liu received his BS in Mathematics from UCLA in 2014 and PhD in mathematics in 2020. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at North Carolina State University with research on inverse problems that arise from both medical imaging and seismic imaging.	Min Wu Min Wu is an Assistant Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research centers on developing mathematical models and numerical methods to understand growth and morphogenesis in living systems. She obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from UCI in 2012 under the supervision of John Lowengrub. She was also a postdoctoral researcher at École Normale Supérieure and a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern University.
Li Kong Li is currently a Quantitative Analyst in Wells Fargo. In her work, she builds mathematical modeling to project the counterparty credit risk in the future. She obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from UCI in 2012 under the supervision of professor Knut Solna.	Amir Vig Amir Vig is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan working in spectral theory, dynamics and geometry. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Montreal, QC and Institute of Science and Technology in Vienna, Austria. He obtained his PhD in mathematics from UCI in 2020 under the supervision of Hamid Hezari.
Jesse Kreger Jesse Kreger obtained his BA in mathematics from Occidental College in 2016 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2021. He currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology at the University of Southern California studying cell dynamics.	Melinda Schulteis Melinda Schulteis obtained her BA in mathematics from Concordia University, Irvine in 1995, and her PhD in mathematics from UCI in 2004 under the supervision of Svetlana Jitomirskaya. Melinda is a Professor of Mathematics at Concordia University, Irvine.
Anna Konstorum Anna Konstorum is a Research Staff Member at the Center for Computing Sciences, Institute for Defense Analyses. She also holds a Courtesy Professor appointment in the Laboratory for Systems Medicine at the University of Florida. Her research is focused on developing matrix- and tensor-decomposition approaches for complex datasets arising from diverse applications in defense and the natural sciences. She obtained her PhD in Mathematics from UC Irvine in 2015 under the supervision of Professor John Lowengrub.	Lei Ni I received my PhD in 1998 from UCI with Professor Peter Li. Was research assistant professor at Purdue and Szego assistant professor at Stanford before I joined UC San Diego, where I am a Professor.
John (Nick) Treuer John Treuer obtained his Ph.D. in complex analysis and Several Complex Variables from UCI in 2021 under the supervision of Song-Ying Li. He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University studying Several Complex Variables.	Cynthia Northrup Cynthia Northrup is a Product Manager at Netflix Games, previously working at Blizzard Entertainment. She received her Ph.D. from UCI under the supervision of Martin Zeman, serving as a Pedagogical Fellow and an ARCS scholar.
Frederi Viens Frederi Viens obtained an MS in Mathematics from UC Irvine in 1991, and a Maitrise de Mathematiques Pures from the University of Paris 7 in the same year. He received his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1996. He is currently a Professor in the department of Statistics at Rice University in Houston, TX; his research spans probability and stochastic processes, applications in finance and insurance, and applied Bayesian work in agroecology and in nuclear physics.	Meng Yu Meng Yu is currently a Principal Research Scientist at Tencent AI Lab working on audio and speech signal processing. He obtained his BS in mathematics from Peking University in 2007 and his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2012 under the supervision of Jack Xin.
Shoo Seto Shoo Seto is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at California State University, Fullerton. He obtained his PhD in Mathematics at UC Irvine in 2015 under the supervision of Zhiqin Lu. His research interests lie in differential geometry and geometric analysis.	Monroe Eskew Monroe Eskew obtained his BA in mathematics and philosophy from Rice University in 2005 and his PhD in mathematics from UCI in 2014. He is currently a Senior Postdoc at the University of Vienna, where he works in set theory.
Andrés Forero Andrés Forero obtained his PhD from UC Irvine in 2015 in Set Theory. After that, he has been working in mathematical education, ranging from curriculum creation, translation, and adaptation, as well as teacher training for K-12. Currently, he is an Academic Coordinator of UC Irvine Math CEO, and lives in Colombia.	Hao Gao Hao Gao is an Associate Professor and Director of Physics Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Kansas, working on computational methods for cancer radiation therapy, including treatment planning and optimization, image processing and reconstruction, computational biology, numerical PDE and inverse problems. He received BS in physics from USTC and PhD in computational mathematics from UCI in 2010 with Prof. Hongkai Zhao.
Kyriakos Kypriotakis Kyriakos Kypriotakis obtained his BA in mathematics from University of Athens in Greece, and his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2009 under the supervision of Martin Zeman. Kyriakos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Joliet Junior College, the first public community college founded in the United States.	William Pachas-Flores William Pachas is a full-time faculty at Santa Monica College since 2013. He obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2012. His area of study was Probability Theory and Stochastic Analysis.
Songting Luo Songting Luo is currently an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Iowa State University. His research focuses on mathematical modeling, numerical analysis and scientific computing, especially on wave-related problems and applications. He obtained B.S. in mathematics from USTC in China, and his M.S. and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2006 and 2009, respectively, under the supervision of Professor Hongkai Zhao.	Kameran Kolahi Kameran Kolahi obtained his BS in mathematics from UCLA in 2014 and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2020 under the supervision of Martin Zeman. Kameran currently works as a Data Scientist focusing on product and statistics for the tech company BOLD.
Jeff Matayoshi Jeff Matayoshi is a Research Scientist at McGraw Hill ALEKS, where he works on the technology behind the ALEKS adaptive learning system. Supervised by Michael Cranston, he received his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2009.	Kwan-Hang Lam Kwan-Hang Lam obtained his BSc in mathematics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Peter Li. Kwan-Hang has been a Professor of Liberal Art, Mathematics at the Savannah College of Art and Design since 2010. He is passionate about Mathematics education for non-math-major students and gifted education for young students.
Gregory Zitelli (Alumni Talk Winter 2022) Greg Zitelli received his PhD in Mathematics from UCI in 2019. His doctoral work was in Random Matrix Theory, and focused on risk underestimation in portfolio optimization. Greg currently works as a Quant Engineer in systematic portfolio construction for Capital Group in Irvine.	Daniel Bergman Daniel Bergman is a Postdoctoral Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan working in mathematical biology with a focus on cancer and immune dynamics. He received his PhD from UCI in 2020 under the supervision of Qing Nie.
Patrick Brockett Patrick L. Brockett obtained his BA in mathematics from California State University Long Beach and his MA and PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1975 under the supervision of Howard Tucker. He currently holds the Gus Wortham Chair in Risk Management at the University of Texas-Austin with joint Professor appointments in the departments of Finance, Mathematics, and Information, Risk and Operations Management. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and a Fellow of the Institute for Risk Management. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and a life member of the International Actuarial Association. He served as editor of The Journal of Risk and Insurance for 9 years, and currently he is Editor of the North American Actuarial Journal.	Yuyu (Luke) Peng Yuyu Peng currently does Global Product Marketing at TikTok, previously worked at PayPal, eBay, Wish and founded several startups in the travel and eCommerce industry. He received his PhD from UCI in 2011 under the supervision of Qing Nie.
Burak Ozbagci Burak Ozbagci obtained his PhD in mathematics from UC Irvine in 1999 under the supervision of Ronald J. Stern. Ozbagci is a Professor of Mathematics at Koç University, a leading foundation-supported, non-profit institution of higher education, located in Istanbul, Turkey. His area of research is symplectic and contact geometry and topology. Dr. Ozbagci was an invited speaker at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics, in 2021. He also served as the President of the Turkish Mathematical Society from 2019 until 2021.	Dana Clahane Dana Clahane completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at UCI in 2000 under the supervision of Bernard Russo. During 2001-2004, he was an NSF VIGRE Postdoctoral Fellow in Mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington, and from 2005-2008, he served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at UCR. Currently, he is a Professor of Mathematics at Fullerton College.