User Portlet

I’ve been working with Wolfram Mathematica since 1993 (version 2.2) and am a fan of Wolfram products and research in general. Although I have an extensive mathematical background, my interest in math is more personal than professional aside from a bit of tutoring now and then. I’m now in my sixties so slowing down as a general rule.

I first became hooked on math when it dawned on me during an otherwise boring algebra class that the expression to describe word problems like “If Joe can do a task in four hours and Bill can do it in three, how long will it take them to do the task together?” was isomorphic to the total resistance of resistors in parallel (or the series conductance for conductors) as I was tinkering with basic electronics with a buddy at the time.

That math described abstract behavior and wasn’t simply a recipe for punching numbers into a calculator to pass a test was a revelatory and transforming experience.

I was a bit spurned by the MIT Math Department when I matriculated there in 1978 but had better luck at Brown University when I transferred in 1982 after a few years of working in Boston (though my focus at Brown was more on electrical engineering than pure math).

Nowadays, I tinker and look for problems to solve or teach others. I look forward to contributing to the Wolfram Community and am puzzled why I didn’t think to join at the outset a decade or more ago!