The department warmly congratulates our Research Instructors Ryan Kinser and Leonid Petrov, who will be taking up tenure-track positions in the Fall after spending three years in the Department of Mathematics. Ryan will be an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa, and Leonid will hold the same title at the University of Virginia. We wish them well in the future careers in Mathematics.
Since Ryan and Leonid were our first two appointees in our recently created Research Instructor program, we thought it would be nice to have them reflect and comment upon their experiences here at Northeastern over the past three years.
Ryan: I have enjoyed my three years as a Research Instructor at Northeastern on both a professional and personal level. Working with excellent researchers in my field and having department support were instrumental to the establishment of my research program during this time. The support of colleagues in developing my teaching skills at Northeastern, not to mention the many wonderful students I got to know, made that aspect of my years here quite enjoyable as well.
Leonid: I can say that three years as a Research Instructor at Northeastern were pivotal in developing my research career so far. I have greatly benefited from being at Northeastern, and also in the Boston area in general, which allowed me to communicate and work with top experts in my fields of interest. Northeastern is the first place where I have taught mathematics in the States. The quality of Northeastern students and also the University’s support in teaching helped me to significantly improve my teaching skills. I am also grateful to the Department for its flexibility regarding Research Instructors’ teaching assignments: I had a chance to teach courses at various undergraduate and graduate levels. Overall, I had great time at Northeastern.Mathematics
