My Education
After High School
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978-1984)
I started at MIT in September, 1978. The first year there was entirely pass/fail, and students did not select their majors until after the first year. Since I had to take introductory Calculus and Physics courses and I had already taken such courses in high school, I joined a program called the Experimental Study Group (ESG). That allowed me to study the material largely on my own schedule, without regular classes to attend. I also took a writing course and a materials science course in ESG. Since I had a very flexible schedule, I started working (full-time and on night shift at a photocopy store) and also ran on the cross-country team.
After some time, the instructor for the materials science course in ESG left for another job, and I had to attend classes in the regular curriculum. Not long after that, I took my first exam in that course, and I got a 45 (a failing grade, the first in my life). I continued working, but I do not have much recollection of running, beyond one or two practices and one meet, so maybe I dropped the cross-country activity. Near the end of the semester, I cut back on the working hours and had to scramble to finish my coursework. I passed all of my courses, but I did not hold any type of job during any semester after that. My second semester was more normal, and I had a regular daily schedule and regularly attended classes.
After my first year, I still did not know what my major should be. I started out thinking that I would be a chemical engineer, since one of my older brothers was majoring in that field. I eventually narrowed down the possibilities by process of elimination and decided on Chemistry. My freshman advisor asked whether I intended on going to graduate school, and when I said that I did not, he suggested that majoring in an engineering field would be a better choice. I looked over the requirements for different engineering departments and chose Materials Science and Engineering, a field which I did not know existed when I started at MIT.
In my sophomore year, I joined the co-op program in my department. Due to an administrative error related to a final exam schedule conflict, my co-op program coordinator had a much lower grade point average listed for me than the actual one, and I could not get any interviews. When I finally discovered this, it was already early May and my summer job possibilities were very limited. Fortunately, an opportunity came up due to late funding for a project at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), and I got a co-op job at NBS (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST). I worked at NBS for three summers and between semesters for a few weeks each year. That was the beginning of my experience with research, and I was an author on my first three published research papers.
My grades were generally very good throughout my junior and senior years, and I graduated with the S.B. (Bachelor of Science) degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 1982. I was encouraged by various people to continue for a Master's degree. I applied to one other university also, but was offered a fellowship by one professor at MIT and a research assistantship by another, so I stayed at MIT. I started in September 1982, working for Prof. Merton C. Flemings, who also became the department head at around that time.
On October 22, I was riding my bicycle home from a grocery store in the evening after dark, and I was struck almost head-on by an automobile (being driven by a 16-year-old) that was approaching me and made a left turn into my path at an intersection. Although I was told that I was conscious the whole time, I remember nothing after seeing the front of a dark car with a lot of chrome on the front about to hit me. I awoke in Massachusetts General Hospital the next morning. My parents had been called late the prior night and had come to see me. I had sustained a skull fracture and required an operation to stop bleeding inside my skull cavity. I was in the hospital for one week and in the MIT Infirmary for another week. I was accompanied to the barber to get the other half of my hair cut off and attended classes starting on the 11th day after the accident. After the two weeks, I was sent home on the 15th day. Despite what sounds like a rapid recovery, I was still in some pain due to the bad concussion I had experienced, and it felt like I had a bad headache every time I bounced at all while moving or walking. I did not have a positive outlook on my future for a long time, and I wondered whether I would ever recover completely. After some months, I was pretty much back to normal, apart from having to take an anti-seizure drug for a year.
My graduate research project changed early in 1983 due to new funding from NASA, and that was a major positive change for my future. My new project involved using desktop computers, doing some programming, and using an optical pyrometer. I completed my S.M. (Master of Science) degree in Metallurgy in 1984. I also was an author on several more published papers during my graduate work.
Drexel University (1985)
For a variety of personal reasons, I desired to leave the Boston area and return to Philadelphia. I started as a graduate student in a Ph.D. program at Drexel University in January 1985. One of my older brothers had graduated from Drexel, my father was working at General Electric across the street from the main Drexel building, and I was a native of Philadelphia. My research project at Drexel involved the filtration of liquid steel using ceramic foam filters. I took evening graduate classes and did my first research on steel. Although my time in Philadelphia was a great learning experience, things did not work out so well, and the funding for the project was discontinued. I happened to make a trip with some friends to visit Boston later in the year, and also contacted my former advisor at the time. I told him about my situation, and he offered me a position if I would return to MIT. I completed a little over a year at Drexel University, and then returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1986-1990)
When I returned to MIT, I was initially a research staff member for a few months, not a student. The research work, which was funded by NASA, was initially related to analyzing a specimen solidified in microgravity during a Space Shuttle mission. I became a student after the Spring semester ended, and continued until I finished my Sc.D. (Doctor of Science) degree in Metallurgy near the end of 1989 (officially January 1990). The research for my thesis was an expanded version of my earlier work at MIT, and included improvements in equipment and some more programming. I also was an author on more research publications.
After completing my Sc.D. degree, I had an offer for a research position in a steel company, but my advisor was hoping that I would stay as a postdoctoral associate to help with the research program. I agreed to stay for at least eight months, figuring that I could get another job like the one that I had been offered after that, if I wanted to. I ended up staying for a full three years, largely due to relatively poor employment market conditions and partly due to my limited geographical preferences. I finally got an offer of employment and left MIT in early 1993. Of course, during my years as a postdoctoral associate, I was involved in more research publications.
University of Pittsburgh (2016-present)
It may seem odd that I would include the University of Pittsburgh in a section called My Education. The reason is that you never learn anything so well as when you need to teach it. I had a good general background in materials science, but I realized very quickly that I did not know many things as well as I needed to know them in order to teach them. While at Pitt, I have learned quite a bit about topics in materials science that I had not needed to understand so well before. By interacting with faculty, students, and staff involved with a variety of research projects, I have been exposed to many new ideas and have become a better and more well-rounded materials scientist as a result. Therefore, I consider my time at Pitt to have been an additional time of education for me, and it is ongoing.
Pike's Peak 2012
