Rommel Cortez graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in mathematics after which he obtained his masters degree in mathematics in his home town of Sacramento, California. After spending over ten years as a staff member of the department of mathematics at Sacramento State University, he decided to return to graduate school, choosing to move to WSU to be part of the fledgling Integrated Science and Mathematics (iSciMath) project started in 2020 by Kevin Vixie, Michael Forbes and Bala Krishnamoorthy. In fact he was a regular participant of the iSciMath activities during the 2020/2021 school year in which all those activities were, fortunately for him, online and accessible from anywhere.

His interests range widely over analysis, geometry and physics, as well as classical music and running.