Our Expert Tutors and Consultants

Jason Smith

Jason is the founder of UES and the curriculum lead for Mathematics and Science. He gained a First Class Master’s degree with Honours from The University of Nottingham, and went on to earn a PhD in Applied Mathematics. He then worked as a nuclear scientist for the European Commission. Jason is a keen sportsman, having competed internationally at Taekwondo. He also has a passion for travel, having visited much of the known (and little known) world, and published articles about his adventures. Throughout this time, he has tutored privately to children studying for a range of exams including GCSE, IB, A-Level and university modules, but now focuses on the US entrance exams, namely the ACT, SAT, SAT II Subjects Tests in Maths and Physics, and GRE and GMAT. His approach is to give students a deep understanding of - and interest in - the fundamentals of maths. This approach has helped get students in to top colleges across the US, including Harvard, UPenn, Duke, and many more.

Loni Reynolds

A US native, Loni was awarded an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, where she double majored in English and Psychology (2005).  She moved to London to study a Master's in Writing in the Modern Age at Queen Mary, University of London (2006). Her PhD was awarded from University of Roehampton (2011); her main area of study was American Literature and her thesis explored religion and spirituality in the work of the Beat Generation. In addition to tutoring, she is an active academic. She has articles published in leading academic journals; she serves as associate editor of Culture and Dialogue and presents her work at UK and international conferences.

Martine Gagnon

Martine received her BA in Spanish Literature and her MA in Translation Studies from Concordia University in Montreal. She is currently pursuing a part-time PhD in Spanish Translation History at University College London where her research focuses on early modern English translations of Spanish Golden Age literature. She continues to be active in the field of translation as a commercial and literary translator as well as a post-graduate teaching assistant at UCL; her translations of short-stories have been published in Canadian literary anthologies and she presents her research at academic conferences both in Europe and North America. She is passionate about visual arts and has worked as an event and guest coordinator and interpreter at film festivals in the UK and Spain, as well as contributing subtitles for ongoing film projects, both commercial and artistic. Martine has tutored for as long as she can remember, and has been working professionally with standardised tests since 2010. She covers exams and subjects ranging from maths to modern languages to photography. She also assists students with their US and UK university applications, helping past students receive acceptances to such universities as Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Oxford, and Cambridge amongst many others.

Isa Rakel

Isa graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Brought up between Finland and London, she has first hand experience of the intricacies involved in applying to the US as a non-American.

Justine DeSilva

Originally from New Jersey, Justine moved to Palo Alto, California to attend Stanford University for her undergraduate degree. She majored in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity with a Creative Writing minor and graduated with Honors in the Arts. During her undergraduate career, Justine studied abroad in South Africa at the University of Cape Town and in the United Kingdom at the University of Oxford, where she joined the Brasenose College crew team. While at Stanford, Justine participated in four different student theatre groups-including a performance as Maureen in RENT with a visiting Malia Obama in the audience-and worked as a tour guide. After graduating, Justine completed a fellowship at Stanford in the Program in Writing & Rhetoric and worked with tutors at the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking before moving to London to pursue her Masters degree in Gender at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Justine believes in meeting students where they are in their foundational knowledge and prioritizes their conceptual understanding in her tutoring methods.

Matt Lukacs

After graduating from the University of York with a First-class MPhys in Theoretical Physics in 2016, Matt joined the accountancy firm KPMG to begin a career in finance. Having a change of heart, Matt then decided to study for his PhD in nuclear fusion at Imperial College London, investigating the safety analysis of commercial fusion power stations.

Matt headed various seminars during his time at university and volunteered at weekly sessions to help younger students tackle weekly problems. Since then, he has amassed over 200 hours private tutoring experience for a range of exams including GCSEs, A Levels, IB and degree. He now specialises in standardised tests.

Outside of tutoring, Matt is a keen sportsman, having recently taken up squash as well as playing 6-a-side football on a weekly basis. Most of his free time nowadays is spent training for triathlons.

Matt believes that anyone can solve complex problems if they’re explained in the right way. His passion for the subjects he teaches can be seen in his approach to lessons, not simply repeating facts but allowing a deeper understanding and hopefully enjoyment of the subjects.

Ryan Denny

After graduating from the University of York in 2015 with a First Class MMath degree in Mathematics & Physics, Ryan worked for Applied Intelligence, the technology consulting arm of BAE Systems. He returned to academia in 2017 to begin his PhD at Imperial College, working towards a non-invasive means of diagnosing heart failure through analysing arterial haemodynamics.

Ryan has several years’ experience in the one-to-one tuition of students of all ages in a range of exams. In addition to this, he delivers classes to Imperial undergraduates on electromagnetism, fluid dynamics, and mathematics. He is incredibly passionate about education, and believes the key to success is to develop not only a comprehensive subject knowledge, but the confidence to tackle complex problems independently.

Aside from tutoring, Ryan regularly plays both football and squash, enjoys Olympic weightlifting, and is a keen cyclist. He also loves literature and reads whenever he can.