My father loved camping and the out of doors and so some of my earliest memories are of camping in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. As a family, we took extended trips through the western United States, Canada and Alaska, towing a travel trailer and camping in mostly primitive camps. As a young teen, I started backpacking in the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado and developed a great love for the mountain and canyon country of the west. It was this great love of nature that attracted me to science--first as a Forestry major at Northern Arizona University but which eventually evolved to the study of chemistry, as that seemed to me the basic science that was as the heart of understanding nature. While my love of learning was probably instilled in me very early in my life (thanks to my parents, I was an avid reader), it really came out while in college. In finishing my chemistry degree, I realized I was just beginning to learn what I wanted to learn and went on to graduate school to get a PhD studying Physical Chemistry at Purdue University.
I am now retired from full time teaching, but not from my love of learning (nor my love of the mountains) which has continually evolved. My experiences of teaching science from demonstrations in elementary school to graduate level courses have given me a great interest in the teaching of science to the general public and sharing with others, that same awe, wonder and appreciation I have.
"To become educated is to become more human."