"My interest began in elementary school with the same math that everyone else my age in Trinidad was doing. My teachers and family encouraged me to do well and pursue math and the sciences. I came to the United States for university and earned a B.S. in mathematics and a minor in computer science from Indiana University in Bloomington, and then a Ph.D. in mathematics and scientific computing from the University of Michigan. The latter was an interdisciplinary degree. I also took graduate classes in aerospace engineering, industrial engineering, and computer science, so it wasn’t your traditional math degree."