My graduate thesis involved creating computational models of looped DNA and studying what effect the sort of knot tied into the loop has on the loop’s typical size. Accordingly, I have substantial experience creating and using statistical models and writing computer code. That work led to a summer job at IBM before I came to Winona State.

At Winona, I’ve taught across the curriculum. I appreciate my students and I want them to do well. An outgrowth of this is that I’ve tried out several novel approaches in the introductory classes: students creating 3d physics simulations with VPython, students creating their own data acquisition systems with Arduino microcontrollers, students fabricating solar panels, and one time, studying the entropy of all possible paths through HyVee for a Saturday grocery list.

In the upper division, I am active in using Labview, Arduino, and other microcontroller/FPGA systems for data collection and analysis.

As a college freshman, I originally wanted to study history or creative writing, but I couldn’t give up the homework sets in my physics classes. I love good stories and good storytelling, and good homework problems are simply stories that I get to tell, hear, or figure out with other people.

I am happy to live just outside Winona with my wife, children, dog, chickens and honeybees sweet potatoes. I am interested in appropriate and agrarian technology and recently learned how to graft apple trees.