◆ yatawara.com / cv
Curriculum Vitae
Statistician and applied mathematician — financial volatility econometrics, machine learning for public health, environmental justice, and AI in education. A condensed record of training, appointments, funding, and skills; the full document is one click away.
01
▸Education
// training2017 — 2023
Ph.D. in Mathematics — Statistics Emphasis
Missouri University of Science & Technology, Rolla, MO
Advisor: Dr. V.A. Samaranayake. Focus: time series with conditional heteroscedastic structure.
2012 — 2016
B.Sc. Special Degree in Statistics
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
02
▸Academic Positions
// appointmentsAug 2023 — present
Assistant Professor of Mathematics & Statistics
California State University, Bakersfield
Aug 2017 — Jul 2023
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Missouri University of Science & Technology
2016 — 2017
Teaching Assistant
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
03
▸Grants & Funding
// funded research| Year | Project | Role | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Air Pollution Disparities in California, 2000–2025 | PI | CES Mini-Grant, CSUB |
| 2025–26 | ELEVATE: Enhancing Learning Experiences Via AI Techniques | Co-PI | California Learning Lab AI FAST Challenge |
04
▸Technical Skills
// stack$languages / software
R
Python
MATLAB
SAS
SQL
LaTeX
Git / GitHub
HTML / CSS
$statistical methods
GARCH-family
time series
Bayesian inference
MLE
Monte Carlo
multivariate
causal inference
$machine learning
random forests
gradient boosting (XGBoost)
neural nets (LSTM, GRU-CNN)
SVMs
k-means
PCA
$ai & llms
Custom GPT development
prompt engineering
local LLM deployment
OpenAI API
$cloud & computing
JupyterLab
Google Cloud
AWS
CSUB AI Lab (GPU workstations)
05
▸Memberships
// affiliations
06
▸Service
// selected- Proposed Center for Applied AI & Data Science Innovation (CAADSI) at CSUB
- Proposed CSUB AI Essentials Certificate
- Planned & developed AI Lab (Science III, Room 214)
- Contributed to CSUB campus-wide ChatGPT deployment (ChatGPT Project Team)
- Member, Scientific Committee, CSU Mathematical Sciences Conference (2023)
Full CV available as PDF — ayatawara@csub.edu