My name is Jibran Haider and I’m a first year PhD student in the department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. I am originally from Pakistan, where I was born and grew up, but I pursued my undergraduate education in physics at the University of Richmond, Virginia, USA. At the University of Richmond, I conducted research in a wide range of topics. In the first year of my undergraduate degree, I did research in biophysics with Dr. Ovidiu Lipan, studying the flow of signals through stochastic bio-circuits of molecular interactions. I found my calling in astrophysics in my second year when I explored statistical methods to improve measures of luminosity-luminosity correlations in flux-limited data and helped organize a conference on the radio synchrotron background with Dr. Jack Singal. It was my research at Perimeter Institute, however, that drew me towards theory. Studying the Schwinger effect in de Sitter space using Feynman path integrals, I developed a great appreciation for theoretical cosmology. With this background, I have found a rewarding place at the University of Toronto and CITA to pursue research in theoretical cosmology. Presently, I have embarked on my first-year project with Prof. Dick Bond to explore new ways of characterizing non-gaussianities in the early universe, research that might shed light on the dynamics of the inflationary and primordial universe. I am excited about what my future at the University of Toronto, and beyond, will hold for me in the field of astrophysics.