Warning, this page is somewhat dated.
I am a native of Western Pennsylvania. I grew up in Economy Boro in Beaver County; about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Economy is a rural community near Cranberry, Ambridge and Baden. I attended Ambridge Area High School. My mother Helen, still lives in Economy; my father Anthony (Tony) passed away in 2007. They managed WYSE Federal Credit Union in Baden. I have two brothers and a sister; Dave works at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Light Microscope Imaging and Biotechnology; Anthony is an engineer at World Kitchen in Charleroi; and Theresa is a physical therapist at Sewickley Valley Hospital. All of them have run the Pretty Good Race at one time or another.
My wife is Barbara
Yovetich Pane. She's a social worker, a psychotherapist in
private practice, a yoga instructor, a marathon runner, a triathlete,
and a zillion other things. We married in 1991; our son Lorenzo was
born July 19, 2002, and our daughter Francesca was born December 4,
2007. I could write a few books about their greatness, but not here.
I arrived at Carnegie Mellon (CMU) in 1981 as an undergraduate student, and stayed there a very long time. After receiving my degree (BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mathematics) I spent most of the next ten years working on various CMU research projects, including Advanced Computing for Science Education (ACSE) and MacGnome. I then "went back to school" to obtain a Ph.D. in Computer Science. My research page has additional information about my PhD work.
After receiving my Ph.D. in 2002 I went to the RAND Corporation where I research educational innovations, often technology-related. Conveniently, RAND has an office in Oakland (section of Pittsburgh), so I still live near my extended family.
In addition to my professional interests, I enjoy running, bicycling,
softball, racquetball, camping, hiking, photography, astronomy, and amateur
radio. When I was more serious about my running, I enjoyed competing in races.
Some of my best times are: 2:48:06 marathon; 1:21:15 half-marathon; 35:02 10k
(33:19 on a point-to-point course with considerable elevation loss); and 16:52
5k. I'll be very happy if I ever manage to get myself back into that kind of shape again.
A few of my photos are online, for example:
Comet Hyakutake,
Comet Hale-Bopp, and
Leonids 2001. There are links to more photos on my home page.
To send me a secure message, please use this PGP public key. You will have the distinction of being the very first person to take me up on this offer since I created my first PGP keys in the early 1990's. But I can't promise I'll be able to read your message -- I don't have the software installed anymore -- so don't say anything too important!
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