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| Personal background |
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My earliest real childhood memory (as opposed to false memories from snapshots and old home movies) is that of watching a moon landing on television. I believe it was the first moon landing, but I can't be sure. I'm sitting on the couch in our den, my Mom is ironing clothes, and we're watching this event on TV. I remember my Dad taking me outside to look up at the moon ... apparently he had to prove to me that I really couldn't see the men walking on the moon.
I grew up about 20 miles from Huntsville, Alabama, where Wernher von Braun and his team designed and built the rockets that took mankind to the Moon. So I was fascinated with space from an early age. When I reached high school, I became interested in computers, and I majored in Computer Science and Math at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I've been involved in the space program at Marshall Space Flight Center since graduating from college, developing database software for such projects as Spacelab, the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, and the International Space Station. I currently develop database application software for the Payload Operations Center at Marshall, from which Space Station payloads are monitored and controlled. I'm proud to be taking part in what I consider mankind's greatest ongoing adventure.
I am happily married with two wonderful children. My 3-year-old son is already fascinated with "rocketships" and wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. And so the adventure continues.... |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I first encountered SETI about the time I joined The Planetary Society in the late 1980's, and I've been fascinated with the project ever since. I do believe that there are other civilizations out there, and I hope that we will be able to detect a signal within my lifetime. Such a discovery would be a turning point in our own history, giving us a new perspective on ourselves and our place in the universe.
For many years I wished there was a way that I could personally participate in the adventure of SETI. When SETI@home came along, I jumped at the chance to participate. SETI@home is obviously one of the most innovative uses of distributed computing ever conceived, as evidenced by the other similar projects that have sprung up in its wake. But just the remote possibility that my own PC might process the packet that contains that historic first contact is an extraordinary thought. I know that everyone who is participating shares in that excitement. |
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