Profile

I grew up on a farm in Illinois.  It was very rural and remote, but I loved it. We had cows, pigs, chickens, corn, beans, and what seemed like miles of space in every direction where I could run around and play.  I have an older sister and a younger brother there too, but not many neighbors…  I played baseball on a team in town, and otherwise worked a lot with my father and grandfather.

I wasn’t always interested in school, but at the end of high school I agreed to try going to college for a year.   I chose to study chemistry because I thought I might learn something about fertilizers for our family farm.  I really enjoyed learning things and meeting people in college, so I went back for the second year, and third, and then I decided I might get my degree in chemistry and teach at the highschool in my home town.  That meant another two years of school (five total) which I did, and at the end of those five years my professors told me I should think about teaching college instead of high school, but that meant at least five more years of school at a different University.  I didn’t know what to do.

I thought a lot about teaching at a high school or teaching at a college. I applied to a teaching job at my old high school, and I applied to some other Universities where I could get a Ph.D. degree and learn to be a college professor.   My old high school offered me a job teaching chemistry and shop class, and I also got accepted to the Universities where I could get my Ph.D.  I also learned that I could get paid while I went to school for my Ph.D., and make just as much money as I would being a high school teacher, so I chose to go to the University.   I still wonder about that decision today.   That was 20 years ago.

I got married around that time, and my Wife and I moved together to the school where I spent the next 5 years getting my Ph.D.  It was actually a lot of fun.  I worked in the chemistry lab a lot, but also joined a softball team and made a lot of friends.  When I finished my Ph.D., my Wife and I got to live in Europe for 16 months while I visited a few other universities to study more chemistry, and then we moved to Tucson Arizona for two more years to study even more chemistry.   Every place we went we met awesome people and had a lot of fun.  My daughter was born in Europe, and my so was born in Tucson.

Finally, ten years ago (2012) I was offered a job as a college professor at Iowa.  My Wife and I were happy with that because it was close to Illinois, where we both grew up.   I’ve been working here ever since, and we’re all really happy!

One of the best parts of my job is that I don’t do the same thing every day.  Some days are entirely teaching students, other days I meet with scientists from around the world working on the same problems as me.  We share our ideas and what we’ve learned, sometimes virtually or in person if we can travel.  Other days I spend in a quite place reading, researching, taking notes, and writing about what I or my students have learned so other people can use it. Some days I also just take a break, like today, so I can do something fun like interact with you all!