Ryo Takei

"Following completion of my SFU master degree’s under Prof. Oberman's supervision,  I joined UCLA, where I earned a doctoral degree in applied mathematics, working with Prof. Stan Osher in 2011.  Since August 2011, I have been a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Claire Tomlin's Hybrid Systems Lab at UC Berkeley.

The MSc program at SFU was particularly useful in the following two ways:

1. The tight-knit mentorship environment gave me ample opportunities to start research in hot areas of applied mathematics. By the time I graduated, I had a journal paper nearly complete, and had a strong background in computational methods. It was my dream to work with Prof. Osher from UCLA and my preparation at SFU proved to be a big leverage when convincing him to be my mentor.
2. The network built by the faculty members at SFU was key for me to start a career in academics.  I was very fortunate that the faculty had strong networks with professors outside the department -- Prof. Richard Tsai (Austin) and Prof. Alex Vladimirsky (Cornell) are two people whom I met while still at SFU, and who eventually became my mentors and collaborators.

My fondest memory at SFU was the closeness of the students and faculty, perhaps best demonstrated by the weekly problem sessions ran by Prof. Muraki.  I feel that such services are only possible with faculty members as dedicated as those at SFU."