Introducing Jose Ramirez as this month's StORy. Enjoy the Q&A below and feel free to ask more questions! If you are interested in participating, please contact me or Mary Leszczynski (mary.leszczynski@informs.org).
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Jose Ramirez
Texas A&M University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Member of INFORMS student chapter for four years and INFORMS member since 2013
What prompted you to enter this field? Why?
My undergraduate was in computer sciences and during my senior year I took two classes of operations research; I saw big opportunities to develop a carrier working with industries in my country, Guatemala. I found that I could apply my computer science knowledge in a different way - other than developing software or working with an IT department, I could work in different areas of a company and not be constrained to one specific area.
Tell us something that not many people know about you.
Probably not too many people know that I love to teach and work with students.
I started working as a teacher assistant and then worked as a professor in Guatemala for more than five years.
When I graduate, my perfect job would be ...
A place where I can teach, do research, and work with industries: the three things I love to do.
What was your best INFORMS experience?
This year I am the president of INFORMS Student Chapter at Texas A&M University and it is a great experience for me being in charge of everything. It is also an honor and big responsibility because the chapter has been very successful in the past. I want to make a big contribution to it.
What is something you learned in the last week?
I learned how to make churros with my wife (joke). I learned how to manage an event when your speaker has to cancel at the last minute due to weather conditions.
If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor?
I worked a lot with the former vice president of my university in Guatemala; he is the person who offered me the first teacher assistant job and supported me during my career as a professor. We also share being recipients of a Fulbright scholarship, and he was important in my decision to apply for it.
Tell us a funny math joke.
In the land of math functions of variable x the "derivate operator monster" is around and if it catches a function it will change it for a new one. Everybody is running to be safe, everybody but the exponential function. The derivate finds the exponential and says "I am the derivate operator, aren't you afraid of me?", and the exponential answers "I do not care I am the exponential function," then the derivate screams "but I am the derivate over variable y."
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Kara Tucker
Production Editor/Marketing Content Specialist
INFORMS
Catonsville MD
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