Jayant Rajgopal
PERSONAL
I have been at Pitt since January 1986. Pittsburgh (aka
da 'burgh) is an unassuming and unpretentious, but
surprisingly eclectic city with some wonderful
neighborhoods to explore: Squirrel Hill (aka Squor
H'l), Oakland (both SahFolkLin and NorFolkLin),
East Liberty (aka Sliberty), Mt. Washington (aka Mahn
Worshington) and Bloomfield
(aka Blum-fillled), to name just a
few. And you need to understand that the
North Side and the South Side (aka "Da Nore-Sigh" and
"Da Sah-Sigh") are city neighborhoods that are
quite distinct from the North Hills and the South Hills
(which reside in dreary suburbia). Pittsburghers
are "real" people with no airs about themselves, which
is very refreshing. On the other hand, they speak this
extremely strange language called Pittsburghese.
And the traffic patterns and the streets can drive you
crazy. This is the only place I know where you can drive
East on the Parkway West and drive West on the Parkway
East. And negotiating the streets downtown (aka
dahntahn) is a true challenge. The area is shaped
like a triangle, so "going around the block" is a pretty
meaningless phrase - if you were to hang four successive
rights, you wouldn't be back where you started; you'd be
horribly lost. All in all though, (as I like to tell
everyone) it's a city that offers everything you'd want
from a city but without most of the attendant hassles.
The weather does kind of suck - hey, you can't have it
all!
I have an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Madras in India (where I was raised as an army brat in numerous different cities). I then came to the U.S. for graduate work. The natives were friendly, so I decided to stay awhile...
My graduate degrees (M.S. and Ph.D.) are in Industrial and Management Engineering from The University of Iowa.
Speaking of Iowa, I am a big fan of the
Hawkeyes
. In my spare time I play competitive Bridge, although I probably won't have the time to be really serious about it until I retire (hopefully my brain isn't fried by then). My other passion is trail hiking - I've hiked many parts of the US as well as in other countries, and the trails in Western PA are some of the most gorgeous anywhere. Here is a picture from my climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro and a link to my travelogue. Here's another picture (from a few years ago...) atop Mt. Whitney with a couple of friends.
Here's a link to one of my favorite pages (especially the "Academic" section).
Finally, here's the obligatory link to some
pictures!