Undergraduate
University of North Dakota: BS Physics, BSEE Electrical Engineering, and BSEP Engineering Physics
Argonne National Labs: I spent a semester and a summer working at Argonne National Labs on High Tc Superconductors. I was entirely a lab monkey, running sample after sample in the sputtering system, tweaking oxygen content and trying to make good thermal contact. I really must thank Dr. Ken Gray for his patience. And thanks also to Dr. Jeremy Grace who proved a good guy, despite my best efforts. The other REU students made the experience unique and supremely enjoyable. Donovan, Lara, Helen, and the rest.
Cornell Supercomputing Center: Spent a great summer learning to program in parallel/vectorized FORTRAN on an IBM 3090. I worked with Dr. Bill Schwalm who was a brilliant if demanding instructor.
Graduate School
Rice University: MS Applied Physics Thesis: Broadband UV Light Generated via Sum Frequency Mixing
Dr. Naomi Halas: My advisor at Rice.
Graduate School Again
Oklahoma State University: Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering (focusing on THz Research) Dissertation: Spatially Resolved Terahertz Propagation.
Dr. Alan Cheville: My advisor at OSU. We were grad students together under Dr. Halas at Rice University before my departure into military service.
REAL LIFE–Case study and team learning approach to teaching engineering.
High Paying Industry Job
Not going to name names. Advice: When you go to work for a company, find out if there is a product and how much of the company income is from the product.
Postdoc and Staff at LANL
Los Alamos National Laboratory: I steadily trended to lower and lower frequencies, but New Mexico was great. Los Alamos National Laboratory did not endorse or approve, but calmly tolerated my writing endeavors.
Federal Service
Opportunities only come around every so often. I took one when it presented itself and have undergone a significant career change. New beginnings can be a challenge and exciting.