I was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1956. Wichita is a mid-sized city, with a population of about 200,000. In case you don't know, Kansas is the state abbreviated "KS" in the map above; the "centrally located state". Wichita is often called the Air Capital City, due to the presence (or former presence) of several aircraft manufacturing facilities: Boeing, Cessna, Beechcraft and LearJet. I point this out, since my K-12 education was strongly influenced by an expectation to work at one of these facilities. In fact, my High School days were devoted to courses in the Industrial Arts, such as Woodworking, Metal Shop, Mechanical Drawing, etc. I was far from a High School scholar. My Mathematics preparation ended with Trigonometry in my Junior year of High School.
During my senior year of High School, I made the decision to attend a trade school for certification as an Airframe and powerplant mechanic. I was all set to begin my studies (in Oklahoma City, Ok) in the Fall of 1974. This is where another thread comes into the picture...
A few years prior to graduation from High School, I had attended NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) in Wyoming (Wilderness Course 1970, Winter Course 1972). This was a month long backpacking experience, designed to learn backcountry skills and proper stewardship of the wilderness. This took place in the Wind River Mountains, which you can locate on this map:
This course left a mark on me, all the more so since I came from a family of non-outdoor types. At any rate, the upshot was that I became very involved in backpacking and rockclimbing; I tended to spend my summers in Eldorado Canyon, just outside Boulder (Colorado) climbing or backpacking in Wyoming.
The summer after graduating from High School, I broke my ankle in a climbing accident. This presented a bit of a dilemma: My trade school didn't want me hopping around on crutches. It would be necessary to wait until the next class in Fall of 1975, so I decided to take some classes at the local University to kill time. This was a week before classes were to begin and in order to go through orientation they had to stick me into the only open slot available; a slot for premed majors. It is safe to say that I had little in common with this group of students.
In short order, I became taken by academics and became a premed major myself. But, I was strongly impressed by the teaching of two outstanding Mathematics professors. I decided that I wanted to be just like them. So, my senior year I switched from Chemistry to Mathematics as a major, graduated and moved to begin graduate school at the University of Utah. My choice to attend Utah was influenced by its location; here is a great shot of the Wasatch Mountains just outside Salt Lake City.
Have you ever wonder why I always wear the hat with this weird symbol?
This is the logo for ALTA Ski resort; terrific access to the greatest powder snow on earth! Here are couple of the typical morning workouts at Alta before heading into the office: #1, #2, #3.
I started out in graduate school intending to work in the area of Banach Algebras. But, Utah had recently hired a number of faculty members in representation theory, which promted me to move in that direction. I was very fortunate that three of these faculty members spent large amounts of time working with me: Henryk Hecht (my thesis advisor), Dragan Milicic and Peter Trombi. These guys unselfishly spent hours answering my questions.
I graduated from Utah in 1983. Just to give an idea of how things have changed, I applied for 12 jobs that year! (That was after my advisor and I cut the original list of 15 down to 12!) I accepted a membership at the Institute for Advanced Study for 1983-84, followed by Hill Assistant Professorship at Rutgers University. In 1985 is received an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship and headed back to the University of Utah for a year. In 1986-87, I went to the University of Oregon as an Assistant Professor, visiting UC San Diego in 1987. I then accepted a membership at the Institute for Advanced Study for Fall 1987, arriving at the University of Washington in January of 1988.
