TL;DR: Grew up in south-eastern Idaho. Awesome family. Undergrad at University of Idaho. Decided to pursue vibrations and acoustics as a science. Grad school at Boston University.
Looking for the next step now.
I was born and raised in Idaho Falls, ID alongside my two younger brothers. My parents are both excellent teachers — 6th grade for my dad, and middle/high school math and science for my mom. I’m also lucky enough to have a fairly young and healthy family and so my grandparents have been around for most of the major (and not so major) events. I can’t express how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family.
Growing up, I was always on the move from one activity to another. I played every sport I could, was involved in several different music groups, and hung out with friends whenever I wasn’t otherwise occupied. Thinking back on it now, I’m amazed at how my parents were able to get my brothers (who where just as active) and I to all the different sporting events and activities. I’m sure it was a huge relief to them when we came of driving age. During the summer, camping was the go-to activity when I didn’t have to work. With both parents having the summer off, the family was able to visit tons of great spots throughout the Northwest.
Despite the near constant stream of extracurricular activities, schoolwork was always the first priority (not really all that unexpected with both parents being teachers). Thankfully, school always came pretty easy to me, particularly math and the sciences. In fact, when I struggled with school, it was almost always with a lack of motivation rather than a lack of ability, but my parents were always there to correct me if I started to slack off. I ended up being valedictorian of my high school class and had my pick of schools for college. I decided (for not necessarily the best reasons) to stay in-state and attend the University of Idaho (UofI… say it “you of eye”). However, despite having the wrong reasons for going, I firmly believe that UofI was where I needed to be. I’ll focus on the academic reasons in the remainder of this page, but a big part of this are the friends I made while there.
I had a hard time deciding on a major when I started college. Music was/is a huge part of my life. My main instrument is bass, but I can fake my way around most stringed instruments. Mostly, I play guitar nowadays. I was heavily considering being a music major — maybe performance, but most likely teaching. However, I realized that I never wanted to wake up one morning and think of music as “just a job” or to have to play music for anything but simple enjoyment.
With music being out of the question, I was left with something involving math and the sciences. I guess STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is the acronym that is used everywhere anymore. I liked the idea of applying the concepts to real-world problems, so that narrowed it down to one of the engineering disciplines rather than one of the pure fields. (This isn’t to say that pure math or sciences don’t apply to real-world problems… it’s just a different focus.) Also, I much preferred physics to chemistry or biology, so that left me with either mechanical or electrical engineering. I decided the mechanical side of things sounded slightly more interesting to me, so I settled on Mechanical Engineering (ME).
Towards the end of my sophomore year, however, I was seriously doubting that I had made the correct decision. Despite having good grades and some great teachers, I wasn’t particularly enjoying my engineering classes. Nothing was really catching my interest. Around the same time I ended up picking up a second major in pure math (through a convoluted series of events), and I was considering dropping ME altogether and switching to just math. However, as I was planning out my next semester I noticed an acoustics course was being offered by a professor in the ME department. I had never considered that sound could be studied as a science. This instantly resonated with my love of music. (… sorry for the pun)
I went to the professor offering the course to talk to him about the upcoming course and acoustics in general. Through that conversation and those that followed, I was able to get involved with some research involving ultrasonics and human echolocation. Then, the next summer, I participated in an NSF Undergraduate Research Experience (REU) dealing with piezoelectric acoustic transducers. I took every course UofI offered dealing with acoustics and vibrations (a surprising number in the grand scheme of things). I had finally found something that caught my interest in a long term sense! From that moment on, my goal was to pursue the study of acoustics and vibrations as a career.
I finished up at UofI, earning degrees in both ME and Mathematics, and realized that graduate school was the next step if I was to pursue my goals. I applied to the big name schools as far as acoustics, and thanks to my good grades and research experience, was able to get admitted everywhere I applied. After visiting the schools and meeting professors, I decided that Boston University (BU) was the right fit for me. The biggest part of that decision are the people, professors and current grad students, I met when I came to visit.
While at BU, I’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of great people who are just as interested in vibrations and acoustics as I am. I’ve also had my horizons broadened in terms of all the various subjects that make up vibrations and acoustics. I won’t get into particulars here, but again I feel as if BU was exactly where I needed to be.
Beyond academics, Boston has opened my eyes to a much bigger world that I knew back in Idaho, as one might imagine. Having grown up in what is considered a “big city” in Idaho, you can guess that it was a shock to live in a true big city such as Boston. Although, having visited other cities over the past few years, I can see that I have been very lucky with Boston: it is not nearly as hectic as some others.
I am currently writing and preparing to defend my doctoral dissertation as well as looking for the next step in my journey. My current plan is to pursue a position somewhere in industry or government lab, of course with a focus on acoustics and vibrations. If you have a position available, please see my Resume or CV and get in contact with me!