My name is Arjune Bose, and I'm going to be a junior at Rice University.  I'm double majoring in applied math and economics.  I do not really know which direction to take for the future, but one reason I joined MCTP was to learn about various fields of pure math, to potentially give me some direction for future coursework at the undergraduate or graduate level. 

When I'm not studying, I enjoy watching movies, playing games, like bridge, poker, tennis, and soccer.  When I'm not playing games, I spend a lot of time working in Rice's undergraduate investment club.  My goal is to improve myself to the point where I can feel like I truly understand the mechanisms of the market.  By the way (in case there was any confusion) I'm on the right in my picture.

I graduated from Texas State University in May 2008 with an undergraduate degree in mathematics.  I accepted an offer to join the math/stat graduate program at UNM starting in the Fall of 2009.  One of the perks was a conditional invitation to participate in the MCTP workshop.  To paraphrase the famous literary critic Dr. Samuel Johnson, "No man but a blockhead would write for anything except money." Putting that immediate matter aside, my greatest concern is preparing for the graduate core courses and the qualifying exam, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Albuquerque first hand before the formal courses.

Texas State University is in San Marcos, between Austin and San Antonio. It's previous name was Southwest Texas State University (changed in 2003).  When I started out, I was mostly interested in statistics and probability theory.  I applied to Statistics departments in 2008 but didn't get any bites.  Since 2008 I've been sort of a ronin. I considered becoming an actuary and sat for a couple of the exams.  I suppose I would still be working on them if I hadn't been given a graduate school offer. 

I'm mainly interested in analysis, probability, and number theory. I'm also interested in Monte Carlo methods and computation in general. I can program in R/S-Plus quite well.  Some strange things about me: I prefer the company of animals to people.  The last movie I saw in a theater was Batman Begins.  My last name is pronounced in three syllables: Fa-Lou-er.

My name is Efrain (Efren); I attend New Mexico State University (NMSU). I’m currently perusing a dual major in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics Emphasis. For the Spring 2009, I was selected to work as a Co-op student, with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) at Virginia. I decided to apply for the MCTP Summer 2009 workshop because I wish to expand my knowledge in math. Working with NASA, the topics of Fourier Series, Mathematical Modeling, and Fluid Dynamics have been introduced to me, yet I would like to better understand them for future applications. I believe that by attending the MCTP Summer 2009 workshop, I will be exposed to different applications of Fourier series, Mathematical Modeling, and Fluid Dynamics than those done at NASA which ultimately will improve my math skills and aid my engineering degree too. The more math exposure an engineer has, the better he/she will perform.

I’m glad I was chosen to attend the MCTP Summer 2009 workshop and hope to meet other hard working math oriented individuals.

I always find it a little weird writing about myself, so here it goes. My name is Marco Llanos and I'm an international student at UNM, i have a B.S in economics and I'm currently finishing my B.S in applied mathematics. I'm originally from Bogota, Colombia and moved to New Mexico about five years ago. Besides math, my passions are music and sports.

I played the saxophone and clarinet for six years but stopped a while ago because i didn't have enough time. I like almost every type of music from classical to rock & roll. I'm obsessed with the beatles and I listen to them on a daily basis.  I love outdoor sports like mountain biking, kayaking, hiking, I also play golf, tennis and soccer.

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of video games, comics and reading in general, my favorite comic is calvin and hobbes and my favorite author is Gabriel Garcia Marquez partly because he's Colombian and I can relate to most of his novels.  That's pretty much me in a nutshell, I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, I have a feeling is gonna be a great summer!

My name is Kasra Manavi. I graduated this spring from UNM with a BS in Applied Math and a BS in Computer Science and will be going to graduate school at Texas A&M University in the fall, under the cs department.

I have been a cs major throughout my college career, and only this past year have taken math into consideration and am really enjoying it. I suppose I got my math side from my dad, he is a math and physics teacher at a Native American community college. I joined the workshop to get exposed to various fields and see if any topics spark my interest.

I am still not too sure what I want to study yet and think this program would be a nice introduction. I'm a pretty relax guy, like playing games, music fan. I'm a local, so I know a few spots around town to chill at. Here is a pic from my graduation dinner... hope there be no crumbs on me face :)

I came to school knowing exactly what I want to do, as I'm sure many freshman do.  I wanted to be a physics major and fully intended to get into research my first year here at Case, since taking full advantage of a research institution seemed like a reasonably good idea.  I spent half of my first semester snoring my way out of my chair in the back of a rather large physics lecture hall and the other half getting whipped into shape by a Math professor who seemed to expect his students to be psychic.  Not one to back
down from the obvious challenge, I immediately started doubting my major.

Still, I wanted to do something fun - get my hands dirty, do some research. I remembered somewhere in the back of my head that high school biology was a lot of fun, which was just what they needed to ATTACK!  Before I knew it, the blooming Systems Biology department had me in their clutches, where I've been ever since with a double major in Applied Math.

All of this seemed rather irrelevant until I was looking for something to do this summer.  Somewhere I was wading my way through reconstructing an analysis of a Lotka-Volterra two-prey one-predator model and analyzing the cryptographic challenges of computer poker, but the rest of me was remembering summers spent in Albuquerque as a kid.  I suppose eventually the inspiration struck that there had to be a way to pursue math in New Mexico,
and eventually that led me to choose the MCTP program.

I'm up for anything and everything.  I'm probably going to bring a few kites and a spindle or two, if anyone has any interest there.  Just talk to me.

My name is Nicole Mohr. Next spring I plan to graduate for Arizona State University with a BS in Mathematics and a minor in Philosophy. When I started school, I had no idea what I wanted to major in. I always enjoyed math growing up, but I had never considered it a possible major until I joined Math Club.

Through the club, I found that there is a lot more to math than what you get in a standard class and I enjoyed every minute of it. For philosophy, my gateway class was a Contemporary Moral Issues class. I had a blast and found myself filling gaps in my schedule with philosophy classes whenever I could taking everything from philosophy of cognitive science to theory of knowledge.

Most of the free time I have outside of my classes and Math Club I spend at home reading comics, watching movies and hanging out with my plethora of dachshunds. I decided to apply for the MCTP workshop because I thought it would be a great opportunity to get a better understanding of several fields I have not had the pleasure of studying. I hope that in the process of the workshop I can make a few friends and maybe even discover a field I want to go on to study in graduate school.

My name is Nikolai Petsev. I am hoping to graduate with a BS in
Chemical Engineering from UNM next spring (possibly fall), if all goes well. I opted for a Chem E degree because I was initially unsure whether a more physical or biological engineering line of work would better suit me, and a Chemical Engineering degree offered the freedom to do both.

Since my inception into college, I have narrowed my interests down to Materials Science. I also have developed a great interest in statistical mechanics, which stems from work I did at Sandia as an intern. I’ve always loved Mathematics, and decided to obtain a minor in the subject in addition to my engineering degree.

Aside from the obvious applicability to my chosen major, it’s this affinity for the subject that let me to apply for the MTCP summer program. Outside of school, I spend most of my free time writing and playing music, hanging out with friends, and watching movies on the very rare occasions that time permits.

Hi, my name is Veronika Strnadova. I am going to be a senior at UNM but it will probably still take me two years to graduate. I started out as a CS major but switched to Math this spring.

I like math a lot, but I don't know what i want to do with it yet - I'm hoping to find that out in this program. I also think I'll learn a lot, and I am excited to start! I also love to play soccer and guitar but I am way better at soccer than guitar. :)

Attached is a picture is of me and my sister about a week ago, I am on the right...well I think that's it.

Initially, I majored only in biology. However, after trying out several fields and finding each one equally as fascinating as the last, I realized I could not specialize in biology. In order to allow a professional education and involvement in the myriad fields of biology, I have decided to include a major in mathematics.

Now, I am working with Dr. Helen Wearing on comparative mathematical modeling of the population dynamics of viruses with different life cycles, but I am very quickly developing an appreciation of “pure” mathematics. (I may one day find each field of mathematics to be as fascinating as the last, in which case I will take up philosophy and sleeping.)

I chose the MCTP program in order to strengthen the foundations of my mathematical knowledge and experience, so that I may one day be a major contributor to the field of mathematical biology.

(I love anything athletic, except curling and golf, I am interested in all forms of knowledge, and I have a dog, Jack, who is the yin to my yang. If you want to climb a mountain or sleep in a park, feel free to give me a call (assuming you’re okay with Jack’s company)!)

Well, I guess as everyone else has I will begin near the beginning.  I enter college as a Bio-Engineering major with the intentions of entering med school.  As often happens that all changed, and I ended up simply as a Mathematics major.  I took as much math as I could and enjoyed it.  Then last semester I took a class in dynamic models.  I was reminded of how much I also enjoyed biology.  So as I began applying for graduate school I was looking for opportunities to study problems in biology from a mathematical prospective. 

One of the places I applied was UNM.  Though I have decided to go elsewhere I still thought the summer program would be an good introduction to several areas of applied math and some pure stuff as well.  Other than math, I love skiing, backpacking, road biking, disc golf and beer.  Also I hope to get a husky puppy soon.

This picture is of me with my girlfriend (jenny) in Italia last summer.  I love them both.

My name is David Weirich.  I'm going to be starting grad school at UNM this fall and am ultra excited about that!  I just graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College where I double majored in math and music composition.  Since I was very young, I knew I wanted to be a math person.  I don't know why!  But I have basically always found math to be very interesting. 

I view it as an artform of discovery. I decided to do this workshop because I thought it would be fun and interesting (do I need a more professional sounding reason?).  Plus it'll give me a good chance to get used to Albuquerque. For fun, I enjoy playing the piano, reading classic literature, exploring, and eating waffles.  As a matter of fact, I am founder and president of the Virginia Wesleyan Waffle Club :-) I don't actually have any recent pictures of myself. 

I've been trying to get my sister to take one (since she has a nice camera) but she hasn't had time.  So, instead I'm including a link to a video.  This is me singing the Tom Leher song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" at the spring choir concert.  And if you don't know who Tom Leher is, then just what kind of mathematician are you!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX0HT8cc45w

Hello Everyone.  My name is Walker Williamson and I’m a mathematics and philosophy undergraduate here at UNM (somewhere nearby there should be a photo taken of me in my squalid little efficiency, sorry for the mess).  I’m interested in being part of the MCTP workshop because I think it will enhance my understanding of math and give me chance to see it working outside of a typical academic environment. 

Additionally, the program seems like it will be fun.  In terms of personal interests, I’m really into music, literature, and the visual arts, though I’m really only a fledgling in these areas.  Eventually I’d like to go into an area of music theory that explicitly integrates both music and math, but admittedly my plans are still nebulous here.  I’ve lived in a number of places, but for what it’s worth I graduated high school in Roswell N.M, which is where my nuclear family lives.