Academic and Research Experience

Algorithmica Technologies gmbH, Bremen, Germany, October 2007 - March 2008
Developed a machine learning code in an industrial C++ framework for fault control and prediction for a Degussa chemical plant.

University of California Santa Barbara, Mathematics Department, August-September 2007
Research on vortex sheet dynamics. Investigated analytically and performed numerical calculations on the deingularization of the Birkhoff-Rott integral using a variable smooth parameter.

NASA/AURA Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, June-August 2007
Worked on the Google Sky project. Constructed and managed astronomical database of images from Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra space telescopes. Developed python code for finding World Coordinate System for FITS images.

Pixar Animation Studios / University of California Los Angeles, June 2006 - September 2006
Research at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics. Developed C++ code for simulation of many colliding deformable objects.

Work Experience

Teaching Assistant, Earth and Space Sciences Department IUB, September 2007 - Present
Helped students with homework and questions related to the advanced courses in Astrophysics and Space Plasma Physics.

Teaching Assistant, Earth and Space Sciences Department IUB, September 2005 - 2007
Created and graded homework in numerical mathematics, calculus, and differential equations.

Memberships and Activities

Royal Aeronautical Society
IUB Academic Integrity Committee
Student Body President and Faculty Representative
Romanian Physics Team

Skills and Certifications

Experience in programming, algorithms, machine learning, computer graphics and visualization, parallel programming, numerical computing, and software engineering
C, C++, IDL, MATLAB, Python, LATEX, Open GL, MPI, VTK, QT

Honors and Awards

Scholarship for Academic Achievement and leadership
DAAD Award for Community Involvement
Silver and Bronze Medal in Romanian Physics Olympiad

Hobbies and Interests

Traveling, History of Religions, and Table Tennis

Personal Statement

My interest in space stems from the childhood spent at my grandparents' farm in northeastern Romania. There, I would divide virtually all my free time between star gazing and reading literature, including books on popularized science or science-fiction novels. During secondary and high school, I was lured by computer science, to which I could not resist and even got a BSc in later. For the sake of my old fascination with space, I studied Physics during high school and college, and then space physics at the graduate level. I became to realize that I was drawn more by the challenge and the mystery of space exploration, than by the science part of it. I rather enjoy challenges of the mind, and I believe that no result can be achieved without perseverance and hard work. My hobbies come then naturally: cooking and table tennis.