About me | Department of Mathematics

About me

I was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1964 and lived in Hartford and Wethersfield, Connecticut until I went to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and received my BA in 1986. I received my PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and have been a professor at the University of North Texas since 1991. My wife Johanna and I currently reside in Denton, Texas. We have three kids and three cats.

My hobbies include:

reading about U.S. history - especially about presidents - my seventh grade teacher made us memorize the oath of office just in case we might need it someday!

eating cereal - yum

crossword puzzles and trivia - I'm not very good at crosswords but they often contain lots of cool (and some would say useless) trivia - here are some examples - those little plastic things on the ends of shoelaces are called ``aglets'', the more formal name for the ``heads'' side of a coin is the ``obverse'' and for the ``tails'' side is the ``reverse,'' and the Taj Mahal is in Agra, India

music - my heroes are Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen - I also like Elvis Costello, John Gorka, the Beatles, the Clash, Puccini, Brahms, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett

movies - Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, the Godfather (I'm Italian), Breakfast at Tiffanys