Math PhD at University of Novi Sad

My name is Milena Kresoja. I hold a position of Research Assistant at Chair of Numerical Mathematics at Department of Mathematics and Informatics (DMI), Faculty of Sciences at University of Novi Sad where I received both undergraduate and graduate education in Applied Mathematics. Now, I am in the final year of my PhD in Mathematics also at DMI. My PhD project is under supervision of prof. dr Zorana Lužanin and deals with methods for solving unconstrained optimization problems in noisy environments.

I belong to the research group which activities are supported by Serbian Ministry of Education and Science within project Numerical methods-simulation and application. Our research group quite large, cooperative and friendly. We organize weekly seminars where members of our group present their recent research. Moreover, head of our Chair always invites professors from other Faculties to attend our seminars. Therefore our group seminar provides a forum for sharing new ideas and bringing new and fresh perspectives. Seminar has tradition of providing great research opportunities and we are all able to transfer a whole trove of ideas that are there for the taking. It also gives us the opportunity to learn the value of good time management, teamwork and interpersonal skills.

Besides numerical optimization, my research interest revolves around statistical and mathematical modelling. I was always fascinated with power of mathematics in solving real-world problems and problems that can be approached with mathematical modelling. During my PhD studies, I was lucky enough to gain invaluable experience in a area of mathematical modelling through participating in a number of summer schools, Mathematical Modelling Camps and European Study Groups in Industry whose aim is use mathematical modelling to address unsolved and relevant industrial problems. DMI is also really keen in straightening and promoting the links between mathematics and industry by organizing and hosting different workshops, study groups and providing consulting services.

Doing PhD at DMI also gave me opportunity to became team member of University Centre of Applied Statistics (UCPS) and gain experience in statistical modelling, use most popular statistical software packages and work with real databases. The most interesting duties at UCPS for me are definitely cooperation with researchers in other fields, industry and community. Cooperation include mainly data processing and expert analysis. This keeps me up to date with application of statistics in all scientific research areas.

Last but not the least, important part of my job is teaching. I am giving tutorials in Numerical analysis, Econometrics, Mathematical models in Economy and Financial mathematics at master level. Working with very motivated, hardworking and highly competitive students that are determined to make the most out of the benefits of studying is really inspiring.

Developing team spirit is very important at DMI. Therefore, we always have some team–building activities such as barbeques at mountain Fruska Gora, going to cinema and theatre, playing live escape games in Roomescape etc.

In order to sum up – DMI is perfect workplace and perfect choice for PhD studies. Challenging task, great atmosphere, lovely colleagues. Really enjoy every minute at DMI and definitely would like to continue my carrier here.