I was raised in Yardley, Pennsylvania and after high school I worked in my father's aircraft shop drilling rivets, which is not as exciting as it sounds, and so I left to attend the Berkley School of Music here in Boston, but after a year I returned to Yardley to work on rivets and teach guitar. Many rivets and many lessons later, and after realizing that I did not want to be either a professional rivit-driller or a professional musician, I decided that a practical education would be a good idea, and so I became a Latin and Greek major at Dickinson College and then got an MA in Classics at at Tufts University, where I studied Augustan Poetry, especially Vergil's Aeneid. For various reasons I switched to Computer Science and got my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. I got married to Jane when we were in Philadelphia, and moved to Boston in 1988 when I got a job in the CS department at Boston University. I taught programming languages and basic computer science, became Undergraduate Director, and did research on automated deduction (see my publications page) with students Chris Lynch, Alberto Oliart, and David Durand, and with various colleagues in France and Germany. My wife Jane and I bought a house in Cambridgeport and over the next ten years rebuilt the entire inside of the house. I spent most summers doing research with colleagues/friends in Nancy, France. I got tenure in 1995, and the day that my wife called me in France to tell me that the final tenure announcement just arrived, she also told me that she was pregnant. We now have two boys, John Henry and Matthew, the latter born in 1998. I served as chairman of the CS department from 1997 to 2000, after which I had a one-year sabbatical. We moved west of Boston right before the sabbatical and I now spend my (1 hour+) commute listening to audiobooks and music. Jane finished her PhD in Musicology at BU in 2004. At home we hang with the boys, listen to music, cook, work on the house, have tea time and talk, work on the house, watch videos/DVDs, and work on the house. On July 1, 2005, I became the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences; I oversee the CAS Advising Center, Records, Pre-professional Advising, and the Programs Office.

Some Interests

• The Bible, particularly the Old Testament and the Gospels and the "search for the historical Jesus"; though lately I am appreciating Paul more and more;
• Audiobook lectures, particularly those from The Teaching Company and from Commuters Library; I like anything about the ancient history, religion, literature, philosophy, or science;
• Ancient literature and ancient languages (Greek, Latin, & Hebrew), particularly religion, mythology, philosophy, and epic; my perennial (secular) favorites are Homer and Vergil;
• Cooking (thai and wheat-and-dairy-free);
• Homebrewing (Octoberfest and Marzen style are favorites);
• I used to be quite involved in Uechi-Ryu karate, obtaining the rank of Nidan in 1998; my back doesn't like karate anymore, however, so my workouts are confined to an exercise bike;
• Classical music, particularly recordings of the great pianists of the past (favorites: William Kapell, Glenn Gould, and Dinu Lipatti) and the great violinists (favorite: Nathan Milstein); but I like jazz quite a lot (especially Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis), and also Dylan bootlegs, opera, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, finger-style guitar, particularly Guy Van Duser and Chet Atkins, almost any piano concerto, country music, bluegrass, the late Beethoven string quartets, William Byrd, any fugue by Bach, and Frank Sinatra.
• Blues harmonica: Because of some wrist problems, and an old karate injury to my thumb, I can't play piano any more. When I took over from Jay Samons as Associate Dean for Students, he gave me a Lee Oskar harmonica in the key of D, explaining that on the good days I would enjoy my job, and on the bad days, well, I could learn to play the blues... So I have been trying to learn how to play blues harmonica by listening to instructional tapes and CDs by the old and new blues masters; favorites are Little Walter, Kim Wilson, William Clarke, and Adam Gussow of Satan and Adam.. Lately I have been following closely Adam's online lessons on YouTube, so although I have only met him in person once, I guess he is my teacher. I play harp sometimes with the Fish Worship Trio, who play at the CAS Talent Show and other events around CAS. If you want to talk about harp, come by CAS 102 any time!