Hello, my name is Johan Cristobal (he/they), a fifth-year graduate student in the Mathematics Department at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), pursuing a doctorate degree in Math! I am finishing my dissertation in Mathematics Education this upcoming spring! I advanced to Candidacy in Fall 2023! 🎉 I graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the chaotic year of 2020 with a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics of Computation. I received my Master's of Science in Mathematics from UNL in December 2021! 🎉🎉🎉
My main goal in life is to inspire people to do whatever brings them joy and fulfillment, and I think being a mathematics instructor will help me do just that.
A little autobiography: I was born near Manila, Philippines and grew up there until I was nine. My entire family relocated to the United States in 2007 and since then I have moved more times than I would've liked. I have lived in about 14 different places now, Lincoln being the 14th place. Though it's sad to move away from friends, I am lucky to have been able to experience different things. I learned that I'm not the best in the cold, so living in Nebraska has been an immense challenge, physically and mentally.
My main hobbies include playing video games on Twitch, listening to music, making art, cooking, and other creative things. I also dabble in writing essays and poetry, the former of which you can check out in Writings.
In math, I like differential equations and education. In my time in grad school, I've found that there's a non-empty intersection between differential equations and machine learning. Whenever I get around to research, that is where I'll be. Education has always been at the forefront of my motivation, and I would love to research the effects of virtual classrooms on the motivation of students and community building aspects that were natural to in-person teaching.
For my dissertation, I focus on Math Education. In particular, I am researching the transition of mathematics graduate students into instructors of record. The goal is to extract information from lived experiences to further improve the professional development and orientation we provide to future Graduate Student Instructors.
In the arts, I like to create digital art through the Adobe Suite. I can decently use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere Pro. And I am also currently learning how to use Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Audition! I also like music, I dabble in a bit of basic compositions when I get the rare inspiration.
In other sciences, I like computer science, but I lean more on the theoretical side of things. But don't be fooled, I can proficiently code in C/C++, while being vaguely efficient in Python and LISP. I also like Physics, mainly the basic stuff because I spent a year facilitating discussions and sections for an introductory Physics class.
In my attempt to learn more about math and how to be a good teacher and mentor, I pursued a graduate degree. In my attempt to learn more about the arts, I have a Youtube channel. I learned how to storyboard, video edit, and even compose music for some of my videos. I also found that using YouTube has helped tremendously in practicing speaking publically, in person and through Zoom. In my attempt to learn more about website development, I started this website, which hopefully shows how much I've learned in web-design.
As for everything else?
If it's not already on my list of things to look into, then I'll get my grubby hands on it someday.