About (me)
Although I don't talk like I'm from around there (if you've met me, you'll know what I mean), I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, which is probably best known for being the home of the University of Iowa. After graduation from high school, I headed off west to Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, where I received a BS in chemistry. I was fortunate enough to receive a Churchill Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge. Although I was only supposed to spend a year there to get a master's degree, I enjoyed the environment there as well as the research that I was doing with James Keeler, so I ended up staying for a bit longer to get my PhD. The research that I worked on centered on the development of new pulse sequences for solution-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
After finishing up my PhD thesis, I headed back to the US to spend the next two and a half years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where I worked for Bob Griffin as a post-doctoral research fellow. The two areas that I worked on while I was in the Griffin group were the application of solid-state NMR spectroscopy to look at biological systems and the use of a technique known as dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to enhance the signal in NMR experiments.
In August 2003, I started my current position as a professor in the chemistry department at Lewis & Clark College.
Outside of science, my main interests are music and rowing. I started the violin when I was five and have been playing more or less ever since. Although I haven't had a private lesson in over a decade, I still enjoy playing in orchestras and chamber music groups. During my post-doc, I played with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. Currently, I slip into the back of the Lewis & Clark Orchestra.
Rowing is a more recent pastime; I picked that up while I was at the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, I was a member of Churchill College and, consequently, I rowed with the college boatclub. Soon after the college was founded, somebody made the unfortunate decision to adopt Sir Winston Churchill's racing colors as the college color. Apparently, Sir Winston picked his racing colors based on his wife's favorite flavor of ice cream (neopolitan), so the college colors ended up being pink and brown (strawberry and chocolate). At least the colors are distinctive. During my post-doc, I rowed on the Charles River, first as a sculler out of the MIT boathouse, and then as part of the men's sweeps program at Riverside Boat Club. I also spent some time helping the MIT Crew team by volunteering as an assistant coach for the men's varsity heavyweights. Currently, my main contact with rowing is as a USRowing referee.
