The foundation of my life was built in Wisconsin. I was born in Milwaukee and raised in the nearby suburb of New Berlin where, with five siblings, I learned the ways of midwestern life. Yes, I really did walk almost a mile to school in the frigid cold, wearing thin rubber boots and as many layers as I could find. I don't know if it built character, but it surely prepared me for many future winter camping adventures.

On 9 February 1964, like millions of others, I sat in front of a television and had my world changed by The Beatles first performance in the US. Plans for learning to play the piano were abandoned for drum lessons, and an enduring fascination with the band ensued, highlighted by the organization of a long series of summer Beatle Day parties and by twice (so far) walking the streets of Liverpool to take in the origins of the band.

My high school and college years prepared me well for a life of fun - the type that is best defined by good friends, great music, hard work, and serious play. In summers between college years, I worked in a manufacturing plant, painted and roofed houses, installed aluminum siding, operated a forklift in a foundry, and cleaned offices and bathrooms in executive buildings. I never developed the full skills of those who make a living doing such things, but it was training that carried over into the laboratory and developed my abilities to tackle home repair and renovation projects as well.

During these same years, I jumped out of the first airplane in which I ever flew, cross-country skied and hiked countless miles with friends, attended a multitude of great concerts, enjoyed canoeing and rafting trips, and then graduated. A professional career began that introduced me to my future wife. Going back to school, we lived the life of graduate students with vigor, with winter camping excursions to Yellowstone and the Porcupine Mountains, and a year spent in Hawaii gathering data for my thesis (and doing a bit of snorkeling and diving on the side).

Ultimately, a longer-term career beckoned, and we relocated to the state of Massachusetts, where we have raised three children and developed a deep love for New England. Lest there be any confusion, though, like most of my childhood friends, I'm a life-long fan of the Green Bay Packers.

I carried out my undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Education degree with majors in mathematics and physics. For reasons that remain mysterious to this day, the physics faculty recognized potential in this young, quiet, long-haired kid and embraced him as part of the department. Hugo Tscharnack offered serious advice. Elmer Redford arranged a job as a tutor in the campus tutorial center, where I got my first real experience teaching. Ron Bergsten picked me out of the class of students to do independent research, leading to my first publication. These are debts that I've spent a career to repay.

I spent a semester as a student teacher in mathematics at Whitnall High School working under the tutelage of Jack Burrill, a master educator who taught me how to teach. I then spent four years as a high school physics and astronomy teacher at Wayland Academy, where I learned the depths of responsibility, effort, and knowledge required to do an honest job of educating students - and just how rewarding that endeavor can be. I also bonded with great colleagues, most importantly Kathy Olson, who became my wife.

Following my teaching experience, I completed a masters degree in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. As part of that work, I carried out independent research with Bob Greenler, who taught me to look up and around if I want to see physics at work. I've never again looked at rainbows, ice crystal halos, or colors in the scattered light from spider webs without thinking of him.

I obtained my PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison where I worked in a group of rogue physicists interested in high energy astrophysics. My thesis advisor, Ugo Camerini, was the most unique, unbridled, brash, funny, and uncensored professor I've ever encountered. He transformed me from a four-years-behind graduate student into a confident physicist, completing my unlikely legacy of having been trained by the best of the best everywhere I've been.

The family vacations of my childhood transitioned naturally into a lifetime love of outdoor activities, from hiking, camping, and backpacking to rafting, snorkeling, and diving. In addition, significant travel associated with my work opened an appreciation for experiencing other parts of the world. The results of these interests have taken me from the depths of the Great Barrier Reef to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the high Andes, from the Parthenon in Athens to the Pantheon in Rome, and from the cloud forests of Costa Rica to the game reserves of South Africa.

These activities often dovetail with my interest in physics. Deep sunsets across the ocean, while soothing at the end of the day, pull my mind to an appreciation of the wavelength dependence of atmospheric scattering that robs the sunlight of all but its redder photons, as does the reddening of the moon during a lunar eclipse. The physics of light speaks to me through rainbows and through scattered halos around shadows cast on the mist of a geyser on a sunny day. I enjoy photography, and this leads directly into a fascination with capturing these displays of physics.

While basking on a catamaran in the Galapagos Islands or hiking the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho bring breathtaking splendor, there is nothing quite like amplifying the experience with the ghostlike apparition of a total solar eclipse. Similarly, a trip to the geothermal and glacial regions of Iceland are enough to satisfy any traveler, but nighttime excursions to witness the dancing wisps of auroral light that grace the nighttime sky as particles from the Sun excite atoms in the atmosphere promote the experience to the surreal.

When not planning more such outings, I spend most of my non-working hours doing work, with occasional time spent pounding on the drums.