About Michael
I am a PhD student studying biostatistics at the University of Utah. My research interests include high-dimensional data analysis and visualization, Bayesian inference, causal inference, and mathematical statistics. Outside of my studies, I am an ultramarathoner and mountaineer.
My love for mathematical modeling first developed at the University of Washington, where I was introduced to graph theory and Markov chains. Upon receiving a recruitment scholarship to finish my degree at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, I began independent research in applications of graph theory to probability models that culminated in a presentation at an undergraduate symposium.
Between my undergraduate and graduate studies, I wanted to inspire younger generations to pursue an education in the mathematical sciences and worked as a teaching aide for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Between sessions there, I volunteered as a math coach for homeschool students who wanted to start a math club. As the lead for the development of activities at that club, I taught introductory topology, game theory, combinatorics, and other advanced mathematical topics and gave the club members classic problems in each field to solve. After the math club season was over, I decided to serve a mission for my church and resigned from my position as a coach. The next year, under the leadership of my sister, that team competed in the Washington State Math Olympiad, and several of the students placed in the top ten for individual and team competitions, coming home decorated with medals.
My service as a church missionary in Portugal was integral for me in choosing to work in biostatistics. Several people I met had me tutor their kids in mathematics, and I developed a bilingual mathematical vocabulary. I talked with many mathematicians studying at the University of Porto; and later, while serving in the city of Évora, I worked through some mathematical statistics problems with some graduate students attending the university there. Unconventionaly for missionaries, I purchased a textbook in mathematical statistics and began self-studying to prepare for a graduate education.
When I returned to the United States, I enrolled in Montana State University and I worked over the summers as an instructor for CTY. At Montana, I consulted with a microbiologist studying livestock and helped with the design and analysis of an experiment determining antimicrobial susceptibility in biofilms, as well as the analysis of experimental data determining the effects the location of an infection has on sheep. Results from our collaboration have been presented at multiple conferences and are in the publication process. My culminating project at Montana State was writing a brief introduction to directed acyclic graphs and Markov equivalence in a causal inference framework.
After finishing my degree at Montana, I transferred to the University of Utah to specialize in biostatistics. My PhD work is currently funded through a research assistantship in the Department of Population Health Sciences, where I work as a consultant for clinical trials.