I was born in the Cascades of Washington, and spent my youth in the high desert of Southeast Idaho.  After a winding educational path including researching the wilderness character of the American Southwest at the Evergreen State College, the eco-geomorphic effects of dam removal at the University of Montana, and mountaineering at NOLS Alaska, I completed a PhD in Geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  I am now Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Montana in Missoula.

I study glaciers because I enjoy reason and adventure in roughly equal measure.  Few other fields offer the opportunity to troubleshoot homemade electronics while sitting in a rainstorm on an ice sheet, spend a tent-bound evening programming numerical solutions to PDEs, or brainstorm a means to transport several thousand pounds of diesel fuel over a raging glacial torrent.