Although I took AP Physics in high school, I did not begin to develop an appreciation for physics until I joined the US Navy, and became a nuclear reactor operator on a submarine. Seeing how nuclear physics, thermodynamics, materials science, and other physics-rich areas of interest melded to produce a Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine was an epiphany! Given the opportunity to attend college, I graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and became a commissioned officer. Six years and three deployments later, I attended Naval Postgraduate School and received a Master's Degree in Systems Technology, with interdisciplinary studies in signal processing (EE) and underwater acoustics (Physics). After five more years of deployments (I made every deployment the US Navy has to offer), I retired. Although I tried several different post-service careers, nothing clicked until I took my wife's excellent advice and became an IB and AP Physics teacher in Virginia for six years, and then returned to Florida to teach at my former high school until I retired in 2017. From the first day I walked into a classroom, I felt like teaching was truly a calling! Physics is literally how the universe works, and helping students overcome their doubts and fears about physics is the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

["Reading, biking, cosmology, cooking"]