Novato native Tyler Borrman has been selected as one of the top students in San Francisco State University's Class of 2013. Out of more than 8,000 students who will graduate on May 25, Borrman has been chosen to receive the symbolic hood at Commencement on behalf of all the students in SF State's College of Science and Engineering.
Graduating with a degree in applied mathematics, Borrman has always loved solving problems. But it wasn't until he enrolled at SF State that he discovered ways to use math address real world problems. He joined Professor Javier Arsuaga's lab as a research assistant and became interested in bioinformatics, which involves using math, statistics and computer science to interpret biological data. Working with Professor Arsuaga, Borrman used mathematical models to analyze data from breast cancer patients. He also learned a new programming language, allowing him to investigate genes that may be associated with the recurrence of breast cancer.
"I want to continue working with cancer data," said Borrman, who attended Novato High School before enrolling at SF State. "It's fun because I get to use math to analyze real data and it's a field where there are always new things happening."
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Borrman will begin a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and computational biology at the University of Massachusetts this fall.
