It is actually impossible to explain my experience in math research without beginning with my experience in math contests. As a relatively accomplished contestant over my high school years, including participating the United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) and twice in United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), I fell in love with the mathematics and the often slick and beautiful solutions in these contests. However math contest can be incredibly deceiving as in most serious mathematics the necessary background knowledge can be quite cumbersome for high school students. Research in analytic number theory, my mentor once joked requires a PhD to understand. But in modern mathematics there is at least one notable exception, combinatorics. Read More

• Mathematics