|
A Little Bit About Me
I was originally born in the Bronx in New York City. When
I was 10, my family moved to suburban New Jersey. From
there, I attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, followed
by graduate school in San Diego, California. My first job
was in Orange County, California. I finally returned to
northeastern Massachusetts.
I was
always interested in science. As a small child, my
favorite books were The Golden Book of Dinosaurs and
You Will Go to the Moon. My father and I would observe
the planets in a 4¼" reflector telescope that a friend gave
him.
I would also go down to a local pond and bring home samples to
observe under the microscope. In 10th grade I
got bitten by the physics bug when I first read about Einstein's
General Theory of Relativity.
My initial professional training was as a Physicist at M.I.T.
I then attended graduate school at the University of California
at San Diego, where I got a Master's degree in Applied Physics
with a concentration on energy policy and technology and a focus
on combustion.
I worked in physics-related fields for my first three jobs.
First, I did research on industrial furnaces to learn how to
make them more efficient and cleaner. Here, I worked with
all kinds of nasty fuels, including heavy oil, pulverized coal,
and coal-water slurries. In my second job, I performed
spectroscopy and life testing on state-of-the art lighting
systems, mostly with a technology called metal halide.
After that, I wrote scientific software applications for a
company that sold a spectroscopic analysis program. I
subsequently moved into software technical support. I have worked with
non-profit databases and applications for human resources, flexible
benefit plans, medical business intelligence, and medical
billing and coding.
I started playing flute in fifth grade and continue to this day.
In college, I took a music minor and started composing. See
the My Music page for audio files of my work. The
sheet music for them can be ordered.
I have also been politically active since I was a teenager.
My mother brought me to anti-Viet Nam war protests during the
early 1970s and I have worked on numerous political campaigns
and ballot initiatives ever since. My main area of focus is
corporate power over our democracy. Since the mid-1990s I
have worked on clean elections campaigns and to pass the "We the
People Amendment," which would establish that corporations are
not people and money is not equivalent to 1st Amendment speech.
I do this work with the
Alliance for
Democracy, Move to
Amend, and We the
People Massachusetts. I am also a regular writer of
letters to the editor, samples of which can be accessed via my
Articles page.
My recreational interests include hiking,
theater (classics, comedies, and musicals), classical and folk
music, animated and (non-monster) science fiction movies, and
roller skating. I am also an active member of the
Ethical Society,
where I have served in many capacities.
I am active with the following organizations:
American
Ethical Union
Alliance for
Democracy
Merrimack
Valley People for Peace
Move to Amend
We the People
Massachusetts
TOP
|
