I did my undergraduate studies in physics at Rice University where I coincidentally met Prof. Gerard Wysocki as he had taught one of my courses. Though neither of us planned it, we both ended up at Princeton University the following year. I was his first student and spent my time building external cavity quantum cascade lasers and took one out in the field during an internship at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England. I had a great experience working with Prof. Gerard Wysocki, and now I'm looking forward to the next phase.