![[Me over the Potomac River]](potomac.jpg)
On December 20, 2008, I completed my PhD in the Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at the University of California, Berkeley ("Cal"), although I often refer to it as mathematics degree since the Group is interdisciplinary and that was my primary area. My thesis is on practical computer-aided methods for solving a class of open problems in probability theory, which I filed on December 18, 2008. My advisor was Branden Fitelson in the philosophy department.
I still have a graduate student office in 826 Evans Hall. I work as a contract web programmer on a sporadic basis but am otherwise "taking a break".
I can be reached by E-mail at or at
I replaced my old slightly flashier web page from 1998 with this simple but more contentful one in January 2007.
To be updated/expanded.
I was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, part of the "Edison division" of the New York metropolitan area, but at a young age moved to California (Oakland then Lompico near Santa Cruz) and eventually to the Eugene, Oregon area, where I grew up. I attended Magnet Arts Elementary and South Eugene High before moving to Portland, Oregon to attend Reed College. I graduated Reed with a B.A. in mathematics in 1997. My undergraduate thesis, Lambdas, Lists, and Laziness: Some issues in computer language design, examined functional programming. My advisor was Joe Buhler, who has since left the College.
In August 1998 I moved to the East Bay for graduate school. I took a few semesters away, which partly accounts for my long stay. I passed my last qualifying exam on December 19, 2001 and "advanced to candidacy", which the University apparently considers a degree. Initially I was interested in the philosophy of mathematics, but soon more pragmatically focused on mathematical logic, in particular model theory. However, in late 2002 I started research in computational biology. By August 2004 those pursuits had collapsed, and I switched to my present topic, which uses some model theory.
I have lived in Berkeley's co-op system since January 2001 (excepting time away), in five of their houses in all. I was in Lothlórien most of the time, though I am spending my last summer in the system at Kingman, where I formerly maintained a boarding contract.
I travel when I can, most frequently back to Oregon, and also to New York and the East Coast generally, where I have gone thirteen times since 1999. I have travelled internationally on occasion: six times to Canada, twice to Europe, once to Mexico, and once to Costa Rica.
I am vegetarian by upbringing. I am now ambivalent about the practice, but have not abandoned it. Partly, meat is simply unappealing.
I am registered Republican and consider myself a right-leaning moderate. My greatest concern is the current uncontrolled immigration.
My computer runs the Linux distribution Ubuntu with Fvwm. I increasingly program in Haskell, specifically GHC, most notably for my thesis work. I edit with vim and typeset in plain TeX extended with Eplain and my own Gfonts.
I remain unsure of the long-term plans for my career, and life. An academic position or a research job, either public or in finance, seems most likely.