Bryan Kumara (2020 Graduate)

Tell us about yourself! What did you study during your time with us, and what are you currently doing?

I’m Bryan! I did the BSc in Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method from 2017 to 2020 and am currently a first-year DPhil student at Oxford focusing on applied cryptography. During my time at LSE, I took a mix of philosophy and mathematics modules such as philosophy of gender, philosophy of science, further logic, differential equations, and measure theory. I did my dissertation on Logical Relativism supervised by Prof. Laurenz Hudetz.

I worked as a project intern at a consulting company over my first year summer then as an undergraduate researcher at Imperial for my second summer focusing on multi-agent reasoning.

After graduating, I worked at PayPal UK in project management before doing an MSc at UCL. I then worked at the Alan Turing Institute on trustworthy digital identities and CrossBar, a California-based startup for almost 3 years before starting my DPhil in October 2025.

In what ways has studying Philosophy influenced your professional life or shaped your career path?

I think the PLSM program is unique in the sense that it has allowed me to benefit from both philosophy and elective modules. In my case, I took mathematics and the mix of both has been critical for my career path as a researcher in computer science.

The quantitative modules helped in creating a strong technical base, and I was able to combine my mathematics and philosophical module to work on computational logic at Imperial which set me on my research path. Even today, I find that my classes in discrete mathematics and measure theory are still relevant when understanding the latest research output in my field or when learning an adjacent one.

The qualitative modules made writing papers of various kinds a lot more natural to me. I find it a lot easier to structure my work, present my findings, and make sure that technical concepts are explained as clearly as possible. Additionally, it was a class in political philosophy that made me reflect what sort of rights individuals are entitled to with respect to privacy and this led me to my current research interests. As an example, my first papers at the Turing was on using cryptographic techniques to prove that users held a valid government ID whilst keeping sensitive attributes such as age, gender, ethnicity, and religion private in countries where these attributes are explicitly recorded.

How has your Philosophy background set you apart in your field or helped you approach challenges differently?

I’m in a program where I reckon 90-95% of my cohort did computer science, engineering, or mathematics and I may be the only student with a philosophy BSc. In some ways at a DPhil level the background is less relevant as we have such a wide range of research interests from legal + AI to theoretical computer science, but I do think that having done philosophy I find research to be something I am comfortable in - especially when forming cohesive approaches on how we can address open problems and understanding the broader implications of our research output. Additionally, during my time at the Turing and CrossBar I found my philosophy training to be quite helpful when perform literature reviews, presenting, and forming a concise documentation for different stakeholders.

What advice would you give to current or prospective students who are passionate about Philosophy but unsure how it might support their future career?

My advice would be to keep an open mind on career paths. The PLSM program is particularly flexible and depending on the elective modules you could open up unexpected career options. I had a lot of doubts about my career prospects when I started my degree and tried a range of activities to figure things out. With a mix of qualitative and quantitative classes, I first tried consulting and found that though public speaking and technical presentations was relevant to my background, I did not enjoy the line of work. It was not until late in the 2nd term of my second year did I come across a posting for undergraduate research at Imperial focused on formal logic (and my logic classes were particularly suitable, especially when mixed with my classes mathematics and philosophy of social science). I really enjoyed that summer experience and after graduating decided to work towards computer science research.

What’s one of your fondest memories from your time studying with us?

It’s hard to pin one down, but spending time with my friends after classes and having insightful chats with department members are definitely up there! Oh, and Miklos’ set theory lectures!