Yeah, I know. Long time no see. I’ve been busy. I do intend to add all the stuff that has been on my mind eventually. Anyway, a quick update.

  1. The Putnam sucked this year. I didn’t prepare, hadn’t done combinatorics in ages, and for some reason took a hike the day of the contest which left me exhausted. < 10 points for sure, though probably nonzero.
  2. I think my research project in astrophysics is complete. Well actually incomplete, but the PI has left UCSD and hasn’t got back to me, so I presume that we are done working together. It isn’t what I want to pursue down the road, but it was a very valuable learning experience. I ought to make a post at least outlining some of the technical details of what we did and what we tried to do. Apart from technical things, I learned a fundamental quality of research: that it is quite unstructured. There is no set of instructions or guidelines.
  3. I will be attending the math REU at UCSB this summer! The most exciting news in several years I think? This is not quite up there with my acceptance to UCSD for undergrad (in terms of excitement), but I would say it’s roughly the same order of magnitude. So it is definitely the best news I’ve had in two years. I will be working on analysis in almost Abelian spaces with Prof. Zhirayr Avetisyan. Some more details can be found here. The topic aligns very well with my current interests and I’m incredibly hyped about this. The application process was quite grueling. I applied to 3 physics REUs and 13 math REUs for a total of 16 REU applications.
  4. I am looking to apply to the math honors program at UCSD. If accepted, I will write an honors thesis under the guidance of a faculty advisor. I will be attempting to do this in algebraic geometry. I don’t want to disclose information about advisors yet, but needless to say I have been leaning towards a math PhD program (over physics) for several months now.

Overall, good progress I would say. Not much more I could ask for during a pandemic.