Youth

I grew up on Chicago's south side in Hyde Park, just outside the University of Chicago campus. Growing up I learned a bit in school, played tennis, sailed, biked a whole lot, and often traveled around the lake to southwestern Michigan in the summer. From preschool to 8th grade I attended The Ancona School on Chicago's south side, after which I spent four years at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools getting my high school diploma.

College

After graduating from high school, I traveled to Ithaca, NY, to attend Cornell University. My original intention was to obtain dual degrees in biology and computer science. That turned out to be quite a challenge. After a year of study I opted to pursue computer science alone, but not without first taking a number of biology and chemistry courses, which I really enjoyed. In the spring of 2002 I graduated with a BA in computer science, only to stay in Ithaca for a while longer.

Graduate School

During my senior year, I returned to my interest in graphics. While in high school I developed a number of graphical calculator games. My senior year, I enrolled in Donald Greenberg and Kavita Bala's introductory computer graphics courses, during which I learned a great deal about hardware and software rendering, light transport, and much more. With the job market being a bit bleak, and without a firm understanding of what I wanted to move on to, I jumped at the chance to get a master's degree in computer graphics at Cornell's Program of Computer Graphics. After two years, I completed my master of science degree and graduated in August of 2004. I was also able to publish a paper on my research in SIGGRAPH 2004.

Beyond

After 21 years of schooling, I have decided it's finally time to test out my education and enter the "real world." I have moved from Ithaca down to New Jersey to live with my girlfriend Melissa (we met freshman year at Cornell in Chemistry) and am currently pursuing employment in the software development field in the New Jersey/NYC area. I am also interested in teaching programming some day at a high school or grade school level. If you are hiring, please check out my experience and let me know if you are interested in my abilities.