Civin has lived his whole life in Benoni, attending primary school at Tom Newby School and Benoni High School.
He decided to study abroad and begin a new chapter at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, in October 2010.
This was after he had obtained his degree in applied mathematics from the University of Pretoria in 2010.
The Alphen Park resident was faced with the challenge of adjusting to the pace of the UK.
He discovered that despite Cambridge being a smaller town than Benoni, the pace is completely different.
The pace of life in general is much faster in the UK than in South Africa; its exhausting, but very rewarding he said.
The saying is that of sports, socialising, studying and sleeping you can choose only three options.
In July 2015, Civin received a doctorate in mathematical work, for his study, entitled “Stability of Charged Rotating Black Holes for Linear Scalar Perturbations with the support of his family and friends.
“A PhD is also a long process, you get an unsolved research problem from a professor and three years to work on it he said.
You don’t know if its going to work out in the end and you don’t have many milestones in between.
It was difficult to stay motivated and positive when progress was slow it literally gave me a lot of grey hair.
I was fortunate to have the support of family and friends back home, and my wife and colleagues while going through it.
“Being privileged enough to study both in South Africa and in the UK, Civin was met with the new challenge of having to adapt to a new level of studying.
“The academic level in Cambridge is exceptional and the pace is unbelievably fast, I had to work much harder and in a much more focused way than I’d ever had to before he said.
A feeling of intimidation came over him when the reality of being among great professors and fellow students who were all dedicated, smart and widely educated hit him, and he felt like he didn’t belong but that did not stop him from working harder to achieve his goal.
With his roots now firmly planted in the UK, Civin will continue to stay there with his wife, Meline Joaris, who he married last month.
He is currently employed at ARM in Cambridge, and is open to moving anywhere in the world when the opportunity presents itself.
Civin said:”I am very lucky to have had this opportunity and experience.I can’t really complain about any of these challenges in the light of the difficulties other people go through.”
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