I was a grad student in statistics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I was struggling; things just weren't clicking. I had an intuition that statistic

I was a grad student in statistics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I was struggling; things just weren't clicking. I had an intuition that statistics and computer science would be a meaningful combination, so I started looking at CS courses. I took Charles Fischer's graduate course in compiler design using the dragon book, and it was as though the lights turned on. Everything made beautiful intuitive sense. It was as though I had finally found the academic discipline that fit the "shape" of my brain! Charles eventually became my PhD advisor. As with many other UWisc CS grad students, I am deeply grateful for Charles' impact on my life. He helped me find what I guess I would have to describe as my life calling. These days I'm working on challenging and interesting mathematical optimization software in the cancer radiation treatment space.