Featured Photo: Kimsear Lor presents his published work at St. Louis University on Saturday, Oct. 18, in St. Louis, MO. | (Photo Credit / Shalmali Bandyopadhyay)

University of Tennessee at Martin student Kimsear Lor wears many hats: a computer engineer, a peer-reviewed writer, an international student, and a university scholar.

Through it all, he does it with a positive attitude and a cheery smile.

Lor is a freshman from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. He arrived in Martin on Dec. 17, 2024, and will soon celebrate his first full year living in the country.

Lor moved to Martin so he could live with his aunt, uncle and cousins who reside in Martin, TN.

“They recommended to me this university. I looked it up, and they had a good engineering program. You know, they have everything. They have computer engineering. They have electrical. They have mechanical. This seems legit,” Lor said.

After he talked to the professors and looked at the tuition, Lor decided that UT Martin was going to be his final choice as a school. He is content with his decision.

When he first arrived here, the Khmer-speaking Lor had few difficulties picking up on the English language because he had been learning it since he had started kindergarten at his private school. However, he did find many other factors of American life surprising.

“For America, especially in the modern day, I think the town is a bit more quiet than I would expect it to be. I was expecting it to be more people. Traffic everywhere. But no. The city’s quiet. The city’s a great place to stay in. I wouldn’t change a thing about this. That’s what I’m surprised with,” he said.

Lor started his first semester at UT Martin in January 2025. This is when sophomore mechanical engineering major Nathaniel Bone of Drummonds, Tennessee introduced him to the University Scholars Program.

After visiting the McCombs Center and having frequent talks with professors Abigail Shelton and John Glass, Lor joined the program his second semester and has gotten the opportunity to read more intriguing literary works, including Plato’s Republic.

“It’s a lot of reading but they are great books,” Lor said. “If I would recommend you one, Plato’s Republic. Read it. You learn so much about the soul. You learn so much about justice. It’s not just subjective to Plato. It’s objectively true for humanity.”

Lor has not only displayed his intelligence and expertise through the University Scholars Program, but also through his recent trip to the American Mathematical Society (AMS) conference at St. Louis University, where he was the only undergraduate student from any of the universities in attendance.

During the summer, Lor researched and co-wrote an article titled “Existence Result for Difference Equations on Non-Uniform Grids” with his math professor, Shalmali Bandyopadhyay, to present at the conference in October.

Bandyopadhyay first met Lor when he was enrolled in her spring 2024 Calculus I class, where she noticed that he had made the highest scores on her most difficult assignments. For that reason, she invited Lor to conduct mathematical research with her and he happily agreed.

“The experience was really good, writing the manuscript with him,” Bandyopadhyay said. “He got some wages to do the research over the summer, then we worked together over the summer. We did all the math, and we wrote up the manuscript. He was very fast in terms of learning things.”

Because of this eye-opening experience, Lor reconsidered his career, and he is now majoring in both computer engineering and mathematics.

“My goal is to go into some company that works with graphic processing units (GPUs) that tries to improve GPUs and tries to advance GPUs so that machine learning would work rather faster or smarter or cleverer,” he said. “But now that I’m a math major as well, I want to do research at the same time with all the computer stuff. I want to write some papers. I want to teach. I know it’s two completely different things.”

Lor used to spend his free time on hobbies, but now he has less time due to his many commitments. Despite this, he still tries to develop newfound interests when he has the time, such as playing the guitar.

“There’s not a lot of time. I do like to work out. I run sometimes. I lift. I used to do jiu-jitsu and boxing,” he said. “I’m trying to play guitar. My cousin has two guitars. I’ll just say, ‘so, hey, let me just borrow one for an hour and see what I can do.’”

As of late, Lor has very much enjoyed the western holiday traditions he has celebrated throughout the year. Last month, Lor celebrated his first American Thanksgiving with Tonya and Kris Dixon, who hosted it for the local international community.

“It was amazing. I absolutely loved it,” Lor said. “The food was absolutely fantastic. I loved the turkey so much, and the gravy gave it so much flavor and character. The side dishes are amazing as well. My favorites were stuffings and cranberry sauce.”

Even though he loves his Cambodian traditions, he believes that America is a much more suitable location for the season.

“The weather here fits Christmas. The gloomy night sky and the gray sky and the temperature, too. It fits with Christmas,” he said.

After being on campus for almost two full semesters, Lor has become well-known for his intelligence, work ethic and his positive and friendly attitude. His friend, Nathaniel Bone, has grown quite fond of his boyish charm and personality.

“He’s extremely studious and all these other nice things you could say about him,” Bone said. “But what really makes him stand out is he’s always smiling, no matter how serious it is. Like, he comes out of an exam, even if he doesn’t feel super-hot about it, he just has a smile that will light up the entire room.”

Even though he is only a freshman, Lor has made a big impact on the UT Martin campus and will surely find more success as he advances in his career. After working with him, Bandyopadhyay believes that there is a lot in store for him in the future.

“He is very obedient, so he follows instructions, which is what makes people better than others in terms of learning,” she said. “I’m sure he’s going to go to a very good, you know, research-intensive graduate program in the future. That’s my hope, and I’m very optimistic about it.”