If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. This quote from Sir Isaac Newton perfectly crystalizes the human experience. We are born a clean slate, we live our lives grasping for meaning, and if all goes well we will have learned enough in our short flash of life to leave something behind for the next generation to build upon. Now, after 13.8 billion years of cosmic expansion, 4 billion years of biological evolution, and two hundred millennia of human inquisition, I find myself at the dawn of a new millennium, one of seven billion minds bearing the torch of the grand human endeavor.

In January of 2015, I had a brief moment to ask Neil deGrasse Tyson if he had any advice for a young astrophysicist, before I had to get my space tie signed and be sent down the line. He told me to do the hardest thing I could think of, and I plan to do just that. In my short life I have been exposed not only to every major field of science, but also the history of humanity and the many diverse languages and cultures that have developed since humans first emerged from the Savannah. I see now that everything is connected. Culture is based on our history, history depends on psychology, psychology depends on neurology, the evolution of neurology depends on biology and ecology, biology depends on chemistry, and chemistry on physics, all of which can be described mathematically. In that spirit, I hope to help humanity by better understanding how consciousness can arise from stardust.

My goals are twofold; first to understand the universe and the complex beings who reside within it using mathematics and physics, and second to understand the natural world well enough to be able to share my discoveries with a global society, especially the general public. To reach these goals, I hope to pursue a lifelong career of learning and education. As both student and teacher, with a primary focus on cosmology and the nature of consciousness.