About

Me and Laura in front of Mt. Whitney in Alabama Hills.

Skip to short professional summary.

Personal

I’m always be changing but people often describe me as energetic, funny, and open. I love traveling, cooking, sports, gardening, and spending time with my partner Laura. I try to value relationships & experiences more than stuff. I want to be remembered as someone with a big heart.

Insight Meditation practice has and continues to change my life for the better.

My Story

I was born in Tokyo, Japan. My mom was born here while my grandpa was at CalTech 1, which enables me to be a US citizen2. Balancing my Japanese roots with my American upbringing was challenging but rewarding.

Grew up in Hawaii which is a gentle, beautiful place. Blessed to have grown up there.

Moved to Northern California in 2008. I went to a hippy-arts type of High School in Sacramento. I played sports & loved doing theatre. I also love Sac!

Adventures in the East Bay. At UC Berkeley, I was mostly interested in clean energy (statistics was a secondary interest). After college, I worked for a major solar energy developer.

Big Changes. In 2019, let go from what I thought was my dream job, went on an amazing trip to SE Asia, began dating Laura, and started to seriously meditate. These things have been the best things that have ever happened to me.

Back in Sacramento. Moved back right before Covid. Worked at the State Government which made me believe in the importance of people with technical skills in civil service.

Grad School Years 1-2: Started my PhD program splitting my time between Sacramento & Santa Cruz.

Grad School Year 3: Mostly in Sacramento after finishing my courses. I got married in May 2024!

NOW: I’m currently on leave to pursue exciting bucket-list kind of stuff that require time away from the PhD program. I’ll be back! :)

Short Professional Summary

For a full professional summary please see my CV.

EXPERIENCE

  • Teaching Assistant, Sep 2021 - Current (Intermittent)
    • UC Santa Cruz, Statistics Department
  • Graduate Student Researcher, Jul 2023 - Current
    • UC Santa Cruz, Statistics Department
  • Research Data Analyst II, Oct 2020—Jun 2021.
    • CA. Dept. of Healthcare Services, Local Government Financing
  • Staff Research Associate, Oct 2019—Jul 2020.
    • Dept. of Atmospheric Chemistry, UC Davis
  • Data Science Intern, Aug 2019-Nov 2019.
    • New Sun Road, P.B.C.
  • Quantitative Analyst, Apr 2019-Feb 2017.
    • Intersect Power

Additional Internship experiences at SunPower Corporation and WattTime.org

EDUCATION

  • PhD Student in Statistics, 2021—Current
    • University of California, Santa Cruz
    • Passed Preliminary Exams, Sep 2022
  • B.A. Statistics, High Honors, 2013-2017
    • University of California, Berkeley

HONORS

  • Wray Jackson Smith Scholarship, Government Statistics Sections of the American Statistical Association (ASA), 2024.
  • Honorable Mention, NSF Graduate Student Fellowships Program (GRFP), 2021
  • Phi Beta Kappa & High Distinction in General Scholarship, UC Berkeley, 2017.

Updated: Sep 2024

  1. He did his postdoc with Murray Gell-Man. My grandpa has always been a big inspiration for me. ↩

  2. Thanks to the struggle of Chinese immigrants ↩