As you can see from my profile picture, I play the bass. In particular, Jazz bass. I play jazz because I like to improvise. Once upon a time, I was a music major at Purchase College and I was doing pretty well playing in the city with some pretty heavy folks. Then, one not so fine day, I woke up and could not move the fingers on my left hand. I was devastated to say the least. So I dropped out of music school and took a long bicycle ride from NYC to the Canadian Rockies where I lived in a tent in the mountains for a few months. During that time, I got some math books from the local library and decided that mathematics was a subject where I could improvise - just like a could do with music! It was a very cool discovery. So I went to North Carolina State University, where I got a Ph.D. in pure mathematics. Along the way, I found a doctor who was able to fix the problem with my hand, but I had already fallen in love with math (and also my wife and three children). So now I have several things to do where I may find joy, inspiration and love!