Biography

I was born the son of two doctors, and it seems that a natural aversion to medicine has accompanied me ever since. With a bit of good fortune, I stumbled into the Laser Teaching Center this summer via the Simons Program at Stony Brook University.

I grew up in New Hyde Park and attend the esteemed (but under-appreciated) Herricks High School, where I will be a senior this year. My curricular background in math and physics includes Physics C and BC Calculus though my interest in science isn't confined to those two courses (hence my presence at the Laser Center). I enjoy attempting to build hot air balloons, constructing extremely makeshift rockets, and lighting things on fire (nothing so far, however, as to breach the fragile capsule of irresponsibility).

I love to play with computers and am something of a Linux junkie. I run CRUX (a certain flavour or distribution of Linux) at home and do a bit of programming as a hobby. My room is messy, but as far as computers are concerned, I'm a neat freak. As proof, view the source of any of these pages. Content is separated from design, and all the code is indented and validates as XHTML 1.1, MathML 2.0, and CSS2. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to know everything is clean under the hood of my web pages.

My taste in literature and music is pretty varied. I read everything from politics and economics to science fiction. I also listen to all kinds of music although I think I have an affinity towards alternative and classic rock. I've played the violin for eight years, but I'm considering switching to guitar, which I play informally right now.

My direction at the Laser Center so far remains largely nonexistent. It seems that I have questions about everything and am interested in anything. Concepts I formerly understood to be trivial have now assumed head-splitting complexity (it took 2 days to convince myself that reflection of a laser is possible, and the mechanics of the process still aren't quite clear to me). Anyways, my experience here has been intriguing and fruitful, and I look forward to the rest of the summer.