Overlooking the French Alps
Mandelbrot Fractal Wallpaper
One of My Bookplate Designs
My Mathematical, Michigan License Plate
My Brother Eric in London
Trinity College's Great Court at Night
This picture was taken from the top of the Aiguille du Midi, near Mont Blanc, in Chamonix, France during the summer of 2007.
I made this desktop wallpaper many years ago using a variety of graphics/mathematical software packages. The background, a selection of the Mandelbrot fractal, was originally calculated with extremely high resolution so that it could be printed into slides and projected over the entire 60-foot dome of the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium in Grand Rapids.
Although I have been awfully devoted to my studies and research, I still love to play the guitar (esp. jazz). This is a picture of my guitar and amplifier in the dorm room I occupied during my first year at Michigan. The astronomical poster is of the Rho Ophiuchi region near Antares (not taken by me) and the smaller picture is of the Orion Nebula, which I took at the Veen Observatory.
This is the bookplate that I put on my physics texts (I have another one for mathematics and another for literature/etc.). The border and oval-frame were taken from someplace that I have now forgotten; the grey background are digits of pi; the main figure is a one-loop contribution to the photon four-point funciton. On the bottom are my two themes: carpe diem (sieze the day--rough translation), and oper edei deixai.
('oper edei deixai' is what Euclid ended all of his proofs with--although not his constructions. The greek tradition of ending a proof with 'oper edei deixai' evolved into the latin 'quod erat demonstrandum,' then QED, and eventually into the now popular Halmos.)
Leonhard Euler was by far the most prolific mathematician/scientist who ever lived. I try to measure my productivity by his enormous yardstick.
(If you know that Euler is pronounced 'oil_er,' than you either know your dipthongs or are already familiar with his great contributions to mathematics and physics.)
At the end of my first summer at CERN, my brother Eric and I traveled through Paris, London, Glasgow, and Belfast. It was a great time.
Last winter I spent almost every night working late in this office. The view wasn't nearly as good at night--although offered beautiful sunrises. I have since moved to more humble accomodations.
This picture was taken at Trinity College's Great Court on the night the BBC filmed the King's College Choir's Christmas Special (explaining the bright lights). This shot was a 30 second exposure, steadied by hand.