Personal Stuff
The back of the black and white
picture shows a place called Mitla which is, with
Monte Albán, one of the most important archeological
regions of my native state, Oaxaca,
located in the south part of Mexico.
The lovely girl with the charming smile is, of course, my wife Citlalli! (You
can call her Lalli.). In the other picture you can
see a nice golf club in Mexico.
Here's where I leave files and some other links
PERSONAL BIO (NOT UPDATED SINCE 2008):
I grew up in Oaxaca - Mexico - and went to Instituto Blaise Pascal
(IBP) high school (1992). Those days were great! Things have changed in Oaxaca during the last
years. My friends tell me that water is harder to get and the weather is warmer
than it used to be. In any event, I took my first course in Probability and Statistics
in high school; we used the text “Metodos Estadisticos” by Said Infante and Guillermo Zarate de Lara. It actually was a
very good course (as essentially all the courses I took at IBP). I have fond
memories of all of my friends and teachers!
In 1995 I started college. I moved to
Mexico City
because I wanted to major in Applied Mathematics and we didn’t have any college
offering that major in Oaxaca
(or at least I didn’t know about it). In the US most kids leave their hometown
and go to college, whereas in Mexico
City most kids live with their parents while they’re
doing their undergrads. This is not quite so in Oaxaca and many other small cities in Mexico. A
significant portion of my friends left Oaxaca
and went (essentially) to Mexico City,
Monterrey
(there is a Monterey
in CA., the one I refer to is with “rr”), Puebla and Guadalajara for college.
I went to ITAM (Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico).
The undergraduate Mexican system is
somewhat different from that of the US. In Mexico, you pick your concentration
right up front, we call it “carrera”, it is like a
major but you have to take more classes on a single subject than a typical
major in the US
would require. I got two B.Sc. degrees (the first in Applied Math. and the
second in Actuarial Science); although these degrees had many courses in common
there are important differences that I have come to appreciate with time. I
should mention that I’m grateful for the education that I got at ITAM. Now I
have the opportunity to really appreciate the quality of the academic training
offered there.
I met my wife Lalli
while we both were in college. The first course we took together was Algebra 1…
I know, I know… this doesn’t sound very romantic, but it actually is a nice
love story! We didn’t start dating until almost a year after we met… and then
we got married and lived happily ever after! (This is the abbreviated version;
more information can be given in person!)
Lalli and I got married on September 1st, 2000 and we moved to Stanford. This was like a 4 year honey moon
(more or less, because I often had to work on my Ph.D. stuff… can you believe
it!). I first entered the Masters program in O.R. at Stanford in 2000, then I
officially started the Ph.D. (also in OR) in 2001. In the future, I will expand
on a lot of nice things that happened at Stanford, all the friends I met there,
the things that Lalli and I did together (she did a
Masters in O.R. at Berkeley), etc. I just will say that Stanford is fantastic
in every respect!! (academics, life, weather, etc…)
Then we moved to Harvard (in August
of 2004), this place is also wonderful, we have been here for a relatively
short amount of time and we just love it! We also have made many great friends!
One thing that I should mention is that the students here are excellent and is
really gratifying to get to know kids with great talents in so many dimensions.
My colleagues, of course, have been very supportive and friendly. I have
learned a great deal from them!
Today is September 1, 2008. I moved to Columbia University (the IEOR Department) in
January of this year – we had to make a difficult choice. We really enjoyed our
stay at Harvard and now we are loving New
York! Throughout the last year, many things happened,
my first child, Martin was born! Unfortunately, however, my dad passed away. We
just celebrated about a week ago, Martin’s baptism in Oaxaca. The trip was just wonderful and had
the opportunity to see family and friends…