Welcome to Ian McPherson’s Personal Site

I am currently a second-year Ph. D. student in the Applied Math and Statistics Department at Johns Hopkins University. I have the privilege of currently being mentored by Mauro Maggioni. Previously, I obtained my M. Sc. in Mathematics with a concentration in Probability from Tufts University where much of early perspectives on mathematics have been shaped by James Murphy and Kasso Okoudjou. Even before then, I received my B.A. in Biochemistry and B.A. in Economics at the Occidental College. Going back even further feels meaningless, so I’ll stop my tracks here.

As I am still developing my research interests, I find myself gravitating towards using tools from Analysis in order to tackle high-dimensional problems in a computationally feasible manner. To box my interests in I am currently most interested High Dimensional Statistics, Model Reduction, Manifold Learning, and Randomized Linear Algebra, albeit at it’s core I am entranced with the idea of utilizing controlled randomness in order to accomplish tasks.

Outside of these fledgling research interests, I am generally curious about Probability and Stochastic Processes, Convexity, Functional Analysis, and Ergodic Theory. These general mathematical interests spur interests to better understand ideas in Machine Learning and Optimization, as well as notions within Physics. Outside of these highly academic interests, I catch myself thinking about how do we as humans codified the ill-posed ideas that flow through our minds - whether this be through the language of mathematics or through the many mediums of art. As anyone else, I hope to one day scratch some meaningful interpretation of how we perceive the world, and utilize this to further my own personal explorations of my surroundings to better understand my place in all of it!

These are merely musings of a fledgling academic, and hopefully, I can maintain these levels of enthusiasm for the years to come. In the meantime, welcome to my little corner of the internet!