I got my undergraduate degrees in math and computer science from the University of Minnesota, which is not far from where I grew up in Blaine, Minnesota. I went to U.C. Berkeley for graduate school, where I studied algebraic geometry with Robin Hartshorne. I enjoyed making many good friends there, playing softball (Transfinite Cardinals forever!), motorcycling in the hills, and working my way up to expert in the Bay Area chess scene. Singing in the Berkeley Chamber Chorus was quite exciting at that time, as we made some trips (Germany in 1992, England in 1993) and recorded Handel's oratorios Theodora and Judas Maccabaeus with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for Harmonia Mundi.

Finishing my Ph.D. in 1994, I taught at U.C. Riverside in 1995 and returned to Berkeley in 1996. I didn't have a regular job that year, but scraped up a little money giving chess lessons, singing a with a truly enjoyable group on Sunday at St. Pete's Episcopal church, and doing some freelance work with my buddy John Black which resulted in U.S. Patent 6,324,296. I also sang with the Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus. In 1997 I was a postdoc at the University of Barcelona. It was great living in beautiful Barcelona - I lived just a few blocks downhill from Gaudi's Parc Guell. It was here that I learned the game of go, a fascinating board game of oriental origin. After returning to Riverside in 1998, I then taught for two years at Notre Dame from 1998-2000.

Since arriving here at Texas Christian University in the fall of 2000, I've worked on a few habitat for humanity homes under the gentle guidance of Dr. Richardson and sung with the TCU chamber chorus on several occasions. I also started running some 5K races, but my times haven't improved much. In the summer of 2001 I participated in a two week cultural exchange program with Universidad De Los Americas along with 8 other TCU professors including Efton Park from the math department. I've led a chess/go club here since Fall 2002 and did some league bowling in 2003. In exciting mathematical news, a solution to the Poincaré conjecture was announced in the summer of 2004 by Perelman. I gave a short talk explaining roughly how this follows from Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture. In the spring of 2005 I gave a talk in Torino, Italy at the Syzygy 2005 conference in honor of Paolo Valabrega. This spring I helped organize a conference for the 70th birthday of my Ph.D. thesis advisor, Robin Hartshorne.