I
was born and raised in
Iceland.
I
was born and raised in
Iceland.
Iceland is a very nice place
and I'd encourage all and sundry to go visit!
Beware though, it is only little and very dear.
I'm married
and have two cats, Chloe
and Thor.
Chloe adopted us one sunny afternoon in Aptos, California.
She went missing a year later after we moved to Capitola,
but showed up again to find Thor (then a tiny little kitten)
had moved in - he followed us home from
the Santa Cruz SPCA
earlier that week and stayed for Thanksgiving dinner;
apparently he liked the turkey, because he is still there.
Chloe was also thankful to be back, but she is still not sure about Thor.
Currently both beasties
have become East Coast kitties and
are learn to "enjoy" snow...
While I was a Cambridge, on a
good day the Institute cat, the legendary
Muon
would deign to let me feed her and may have a nap in my office
as the mood takes her.
Muon is the most senior being at the IoA and rules the staff
with a firm paw.
Other important beasties include Najma and Toby, who will soon be on-line as well.
I went to school in Iceland; first briefly at Laugarnesskóla; then at Árbæjarskóla, then at Vogaskóla.
I moved to England in my teens,
a long time ago, and
went to school first at Graham Park Comprehensive School in Brent, London
(now thankfully shut, nasty place that) then at
Cherwell
Comprehensive, Oxford. This is of no relevance, but they have
a surprisingly good of WWW site, so be nice and give them a hit.
I recommend the
history
page (even if they've lost
Capt. John Browning, best history teacher I've known), and the
science
pages are also quite good for a school.
Somewhere along the way
I picked up a
BSc (Mathematical Physics) at
Sussex University.
From what I hear the place just ain't what it used to be, shouldn't
have shut USTA down and definitely shouldn't have shut MAPS down.
But, I liked it, good place to be an undergrad
back then and I even learned something.
After graduating I did a MSc (Physics)
and PhD (Theoretical Astrophysics)
at Caltech.
Caltech is an interesting place. About as different from Sussex
as one can imagine. Some incredible science is done there, and
I'm glad I went. Recommended for post-graduate study in science,
but only if you're prepared to work very, very, very hard.
TAPIR is excellent, their
graduate handbook
says it all.
My thesis advisor was
Sterl Phinney. Smart guy.
I was in physics but
my PhD was astrophysics
and I spent increasingly more time in
astronomy the longer I was there.
After graduating from
Caltech, and getting married, I was a postdoc
at UCSC,
Lick Observatory,
working primarily with Lars Hernquist
Santa Cruz
is gorgeous, a must place to visit, an
expensive place to live.
From 1996 to 1998 I was a
European Union,
Marie Curie,
Personal
Research Fellow. Now I am a member of the
Marie Curie Fellowship Association.
I originally went to the IoA as a
PPARC fellow
but switched to the EU fellowship and then became
an Institute PPARC fellow again.
Summer of 1998 I was a Visiting Research Associate at
Lick for a while,
just because I could.
Currently I am an assistant professor in the
Department of
Astronomy and Astrophysics at
Pennsylvania State University.
Go big blue! I guess.
I was also loosely affiliated with
King's College as a senior
visiting sort of member. Nice ambiance, ok lunch, superb wine and
an excellent little gym. Nice college. If you have loads'o'money
to spare, do give them some, but only after any generous donation
to Penn State and research in astronomy and astrophysics! :-)
In addition to
my research,
While in Cambridge I was also the IoA contact for
EARA.
EARA is the European Association for Research in Astronomy,
watch that space... it seems to be blank now.
I was recently surprised to discover that my one
public attempt at "poetry" made it into "print".
The web truly knows how to
embarrass
people...
Last updated 08/98
Back to the top of my home page.
