Sam is an accomplished computational physicist with a passion for data analysis. During his doctoral studies, Sam was the first author on a book chapter, a provisional patent, and several peer-reviewed papers, completed only three and a half years after his bachelor’s degree. As an applications scientist at Nanometrics, Sam utilized data analysis and modeling to support customers in the computer chip manufacturing industry. In order to deepen his understanding of data science, Sam enrolled in NYC Data Science Academy where he produced four high quality projects in three months. For his most recent project, Sam developed the Spark-based machine learning engine for his team’s restaurant recommendation website.