That's me practicin bein Tixen.  

(More about the picture below.)

What I'm Up To

I am a Research Scientist Associate (in practice, mostly a software engineer) at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics in the delightful city of Austin. It's not a very exalted position, but I'm lucky to be at this very ambitious institution at all. I do get to think for a living, which makes me happy. I have always been interested in optimal use of information.  I get paid, specifically, to investigate and create formal data-driven constraints on earth system models.

I also serve as an editor of the forthcoming EGU journal Geoscientific Model Development. Until recently I had a slightly paid side job as a writer on the KCET WIRED Science blog site which requires me to spell WIRED in all caps whether I like it or not.

Bio

B.Sc.: EE Northwestern U. Tech. Institute, 1976                

M.Eng.: Systems/Computer Engineering Carleton U., 1984

Ph.D.:  Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences U Wis Madison 1996

Postdocs: Argonne Lab department of Mathematics and Computer Science; University of Chicago department of Geophysical Sciences 

Intervening adventures in the private sector: Manager of a web software team at Clotho Advanced Media LLC. Architect of a citywide permit tracking system for the City of Madison. management consultant. Author of a book on management intended for small teams and high-performance small businesses.

Teaching experience: Taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in CS at Carleton University back in the 1980s and recently at Loyola University of Chicago. Interested in teaching, learning, reading, writing, and other forms of persuasion.

Things I do

  • Climate and climate change, especially contemporary and holocene time scales.
  • Blog, mostly about environmental issues. I occasionally contribute to Grist , though on occasion they are too PC for my taste. 
  • Computing in general; Python in particular. Seeking Python mediated escapes from the professional productivity hit that working in conventional high performance modeling entails
  • Software as medium and as topic in education. Literate programming and computer literacy.
  • Cognition/Communication/Control/Modeling/Decision Theory (the cluster of ideas formerly known as "cybernetics").
  • Collaboration and productivity. 
  • Random bicycling, random landscape photography, where possible at the same time.
  • Music. Jazz, blues, Texas swing. Piano and clarinet are my instruments. I am not very good.

Interests

Other things I find especially interesting, more as a spectator: 

  • History. Demographics, technology and environment as factors in history
  • Architecture, planning and civil engineering
  • Science fiction
  • Decorative and fine arts, mostly European 1850 - 1935, also Japanese woodcuts and silver age Marvel comics
  • Kubrick, The Coen Brothers, Steve Jobs, Tom Wolfe, the Naipaul Brothers, Alan Watts, Leonard Cohen, Samuel Delany, Philip K Dick, Bob Wills, Grapelli, Robert Hunter, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton ...

Now, about that picture

You see me as I was about to enter a Hatch green chile cookin contest at the Central Market in wonderful Austin TX. I make somethin I call a Texas fritatta, which if you orn't vijetarian is somethin to remember. It requires a little bit of store-bought Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, almost burnt, to give it that smoky Tixen touch. 

I didn't win, but I'm guessin one of the judges di'n't like aigs. Couple of the contest judges practically told me they wanted me to win, but the gazpacho feller got the $500 anyway.

PS: Store-bought Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage almost burnt is an ingredient which makes my ancestors spin in ther graves, but you have to go with the flow sometimes. You have to admit that I make a fine Texan for a Cote St. Luc boy. Thanks to Irene for the pic, as well as just about everything else.