I was born on July 29th, 1974 in Edina, Minnesota. I spent the majority of my childhood shuttling between the 'big' city of Minneapolis and the small town (pop. <750) of Old Frontenac situated at the widest point of the Mississippi River. Despite constant pleas, my parents were unwilling to make a permanent home in the country. They were both professors at the U of MN, and that sort of work doesn't translate well to rural America. So, I too spent my (childhood) academic career in Minneapolis and every free moment in the country.
It was the Mississippi River that got me utterly and completely hooked on the outdoors. As a child it served as a place for swimming, boating, fishing, and exploring. As I (arguably) grew up, I realized that my interest in the river could be paired with my interest (aptitude for?) science. My love of chemistry truly blossomed during my college years at Grinnell College in Iowa. Their facilities, faculty, and atmosphere are exceptional. I became interested in aquatic chemistry through projects such as the 'water module' in which my general chemistry laboratory analyzed drinking water samples for impurities. The experience was phenomenal, and I found that I loved working with scientific instruments. My experience as a fledgling aquatic chemist grew as I had opportunities to study for a summer at the U of MN and also at Tulane University.
During the same time, I was becoming intellectually stimulated by my courses in physical chemistry. The ability to approach chemical problems from a first principles perspective was tremendously appealing to me. Through lots of late nights, study sessions with my peers, and general perseverance I managed to do well in the course and develop a serious interest in the study of physical chemistry.
When it became time to decide what I wanted to do for my graduate research, I was torn. I applied to six environmental engineering programs and six 'pure' chemistry programs. When decision time came, I balked and begged for extra time from my top choices. At this point, Dr. Kit Bowen from the Johns Hopkins University Department of Chemistry contacted me. His work centered on the study of clusters, which are gas phase analogs of bulk matter (i.e. nanoscale pieces of a liquid or solid). He persuaded me to come work for him with the (justifiable) assertion that the surefire way to make inroads into the world of water science was to study the bulk phenomenon on a molecule-by-molecule level. Cluster science is uniquely suited to do just that.
My work with Dr. Bowen was extremely fruitful and further honed my research goals for my own career. Through the work I performed in his lab I became a skilled experimentalist - but also an electrician, plumber, drafter, machinist, and theoretician. As physical chemists will tell you, the blessing and the curse of experimental physical chemistry is that there are no repairmen for homemade molecular beams. Therefore, one learns to have the wrench in one hand and their lab gloves on the other.
Throughout this time, I maintained a friendship with Dr. Kris McNeill from the chemistry dept. at the U of MN. He was a good friend of my college advisor in Grinnell. His work in environmental chemistry continued to grow to the point that he became very well respected in the field. In early 2009 he was offered a position at ETH in Zurich. ETH and EAWAG are two Swiss institutions that have had a tremendous impact in aquatic chemistry worldwide. I was fortunate to be offered a position with Dr. McNeill as a Postdoctoral associate.
My work here focuses on the photochemistry of pollutants and the interaction between pollutants, natural organic matter, photons, and photochemically generated reactive species. My experience with laser technology from Johns Hopkins has helped me to put together a femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy experiment. This technique will allow us to monitor the direct photolysis and indirect photolysis of environmentally relevant systems. Furthermore, it will allow me to study the reactivity of the hydrated electron with natural organics and pollutants as well.
I am currently living in Zurich with my lovely wife, Amanda and my long-time four-legged friend, Shai.
