I spent my freshman year, the Fall of 1991 through the Summer of 1992, at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. This was a wonderful time of learning how to drink and socialize 7 days a week, while still managing to spend $30,000 for an academic education which I took no part in.
After that wasted but fun year, I spent the following three years with my nose in the books, at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. Due to this extended period of studying, I forgot how to drink or socialize. I acheived a funny little GPA of 3.79. This was funny because one needs a 3.8 in order to graduate with high honors. But don't worry, I had a 4.0 in my math courses and won all the awards from the math department.
In June of 1995 I received my B.S., having concentrated in mathematics, with some focus on computer science and physics as well.
I helped out with TRANSIMS and here is a little paper about traffic.
I also spent a lot of time skiing and hiking in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
In August of 1995 I came to the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a SERS student for the fall. During this time, Steen Rasmussen was my mentor. With Steen, and some cool Biologists such as Ted Puck and Bruce Boman, we worked on
For more information about these exciting items, feel free to
email me.
In January of 1996 I was hired as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Lab. I spent some large chunks of time working with traffic flow simulations. They are a perfect example of a simulated complex system generating emergent properties. As far as I can see, "emergence" has to do with "magic". Fear not, I will get to the bottom of this.
I tended to spend a day or two each week doing my work (for Los Alamos) at the Santa Fe Institute, a center for the study of complexity science.
In August of 1996 I began my graduate studies at the University of Texas. I shall study and do research as a Computational and Applied Mathematics student, associated with the Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics, a wonderfully interdisciplinary group!
My most fun classes were...
So I basically was a teaching assistant at the College of Staten Island (City University of New York) where I helped 18 year old kids suffer through some basic mathematical concepts, while they kicked and screamed.
Then I was a waitress at none other than Perkins!
That was, hands-down, the worst job I've ever had.
I remember the "interview"... The manager said, "So you used
to do research at a nuclear laboratory, and now you want to be a waitress?"
I said "yes" and he pretended to believe me, and hired me. I was awful though. I never, ever smiled. Why
the hell should I smile? Those twits who are regulars at perkins tip about $1 per dinner (for a family
of four). Sure, why not. It's not as though waitresses LIVE ON THEIR TIPS OR ANYTHING.
How did this happen? Well, I was a math major way-back-when before the days of serving grease plates at Perkins. And math majors have a few well-known options for careers, such as research, teaching, research, teaching, waiting tables, or being an actuary.
It turns out that Actuaries make more money than the other options, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Actually actuaries deal with probability and statistics and loss modelling which is really pretty damn cool work if you can get it.
Find out how to become an actuary. Or email me.
I worked for Kwasha Lipton (of PriceWaterhouseCoopers) for about a year and a half, doing pension actuarial stunts. But that was not for me. How many FAS 35s can one person look at?
Next I worked at Insurance Services Office, in the Increased Limits division, where I have loads of fun everyday!! Check out ISO. I use mixed exponential curves to model loss distributions at high insurance policy limits. After 4 years and a thousand hours of work at ISO, it was, sadly, time to move on.
In September 2003 I began my actuarial adventures at CNA, doing pricing of D&O Liability Insurance, and such. While at CNA I turned 30 and realized that I did not want to enter another decade of taking actuarial exams.
In September of 2005 I began working at Guy Carpenter, where I do catastrophe modeling for property insurers. Hurricanes and Earthquakes and Wildfires, Oh My!!
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