My somewhat circuitous career path began with an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Stanford University (with a concentration on creative writing) and meandered through work as a jewelry designer, musician, and health-food store owner before I became fascinated by the promise and challenge of Artificial Intelligence. This led to a study of computer science leading, a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico, and a career as a consultant, textbook author, teacher (including a wonderful stint as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College), and research scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. In 2011, I left the labs to pursue my life-long love of creative writing, music, and the guitar.
My writing tends toward speculative fiction since it lets me explore the intersection of the scientific and poetic, and because so much of my thinking was shaped by science fiction masters including Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Herbert, Delany, Dick, Le Guin, and Vonnegut. Although so much of our culture treats the scientific and poetic as sharply distinct, the beauty and elegance of the natural world as revealed by science rivals even the finest poetry.
The tagline of this site (“When you find your place, practice begins”) is from the thirteenth-century Buddhist master Dogen Zenji. It reminds me that any spiritual practice (including music and writing) can only begin when we find the place where we belong, and embrace the natural, cultural, and spiritual networks that enfold us.
For me, that place is the house I share with my wife, Merry, our animals (multiple cats, and a cockatiel named Blossom), and the wild birds, rabbits, squirrels, snakes, bobcats, coyotes, and deer who find their way into our yard. It includes the bioregion of New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains, their foothills (where our home sits), and the plain descending to the Rio Grande Valley below us. Merry and I share this location with the city of Albuquerque, and the friends, organizations, and businesses that enrich our lives.
I dedicate this web site and the work it represents to my wife, and to all the friends, family, teachers, colleagues, critters, artists, writers, musicians, and scientists who have made me who I am.
For more about my professional history, see my resume.