{"id":177362,"date":"2023-05-09T15:07:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T01:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=177362"},"modified":"2023-05-09T15:07:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T01:07:19","slug":"kunwar-phd-mathematics-grad-served-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/09\/kunwar-phd-mathematics-grad-served-the-state\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD<\/abbr> mathematics grad served the state through research, teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"two
Prateek Kunwar and Monique Chyba pose for a photo after Kunwar’s PhD<\/abbr> dissertation defense.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prateek Kunwar will be one of the newest PhD<\/abbr> graduates from the University of Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Natural Sciences<\/a> in just a few days.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bDuring his time as a Department of Mathematics<\/a> PhD<\/abbr> student, Kunwar has made a profound impact on the state in two ways: he worked extensively on COVID-19 mathematical modeling that informed the state\u2019s pandemic response and he is a mathematics instructor educating our next generation of higher education students at Honolulu Community College<\/a>. He did all of this on top of completing his PhD<\/abbr> requirements.<\/p>\n

Earning a PhD<\/abbr><\/h2>\n

\u200b\u200bKunwar earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from Delhi Technological University in India and his master\u2019s degree from the University of Maine. He chose to pursue his PhD<\/abbr> at ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> M\u0101noa because M\u0101noa had scientists working in his desired field: applied dynamical systems. Kunwar defended his dissertation in April 2023 and is on his way to graduation.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u201cIt feels very surreal,\u201d Kunwar said. \u201cOf course, anybody who starts in the program does it with the intention of finishing it. But when you are this close to finishing and I look back, it almost seems unreal that I find myself in this position particularly because after I started I actually took a year\u2019s leave of absence and I wasn\u2019t sure if I was going to come back. But I did come back and then things kind of rolled and I think it\u2019s just surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

COVID-19 forecast modeling<\/h2>\n

\u200b\u200bKunwar was part of a team, under the leadership of Professor Monique Chyba, that worked tirelessly to provide the latest COVID-19 modeling during the pandemic. The model was widely used by experts and decision makers to develop policies for the state and counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me motivation to complete the requirements for my PhD<\/abbr>,\u201d Kunwar said. \u201cI kept learning. It kept evolving. There were always new things happening with vaccinations rolling out and new characteristics coming out about the disease. We\u2019re always brainstorming\u2014\u2018what\u2019s happening around the world? It\u2019s going to happen in Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> so we should be ready and how can we adapt the model?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bDuring his work on COVID-19 modeling, Kunwar was constantly focused on making sure the data was accurate and credited Chyba with ensuring their findings were translated for wider public consumption.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u201cI am absolutely delighted to see Prateek graduate, he worked so hard during the pandemic with endless nights and weekends to make sure the model was up to date and that simulations were meaningful,\u201d Chyba said. \u201cIt was not an easy journey, modeling COVID-19 while in the urgency of the pandemic did put a lot of pressure. I am extremely proud of Prateek. The reward of his efforts is priceless with a sense of accomplishment and a PhD<\/abbr> in mathematics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honolulu CC<\/abbr> instructor<\/h2>\n

\u200b\u200bKunwar became a tenure-track instructor at Honolulu CC<\/abbr> and continued his education through the support provided by his college. One thing he has discovered about teaching has been his ability to bond with the students, many of whom also work and go to school.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u201cAt Honolulu Community College, there are a variety of students\u2014they are looking for transfers, trade students, some are adult learners, and most of them work while doing school and I\u2019m doing the same. There is a sense of camaraderie that forms,\u201d Kunwar said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been incredible working there. I\u2019ve used what I\u2019ve done in my research in my calculus classes and I\u2019m developing some lessons for algebra classes. \u2026I think it\u2019s exciting for the students to know that the mathematics you\u2019re learning may be basic right now but it builds up all of these things that we used in our forecast for the state of Hawai\u02bbi<\/span>.\u201d
\nKunwar added, \u201cFor me, my teaching and my interactions with students kept me grounded and made me feel less isolated during the pandemic. Without that, it would be really difficult to keep going. Teaching at Honolulu CC<\/abbr> is really great. Working and having discussions with my students energizes me. It motivates me to look for different ways of presenting ideas and understanding how I could contribute towards their success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning home<\/h2>\n

\u200b\u200bOne of the things Kunwar wants to do after graduation is travel back home to India, something he hasn\u2019t been able to do in more than four years. He returned to Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> from India in March 2019 for the job interview with Honolulu CC<\/abbr> and then he had one regular semester before the pandemic hit. Kunwar planned to visit India in summer 2021, but the Delta variant, which started in India, emerged.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u201cThis year, I was really pushing myself to wrap everything up and go home to see my family,\u201d Kunwar said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really tough four years being away from everybody. But I\u2019ve had friends and really good support here so that\u2019s kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prateek Kunwar will be one of the newest PhD<\/abbr> graduates from ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Natural Sciences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[308,234,598,62,554,660,71,9],"class_list":["post-177362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-commencement","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-honolulu-community-college","tag-mathematics","tag-student-recognition","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177362"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177393,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177362\/revisions\/177393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}