Things Were Going Great
I was born on Halloween in 1969 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I had a very normal childhood growing up in Milan, Michigan. My father was an automobile mechanic, and my mother was a stay-at-home mom and later a bank teller and administrative assistant. I lived in the same house on a dead-end dirt road just outside of town for my first 18 years. About a quarter-mile south of this house was a massive Ford Motor Company plastics plant that made gas tanks and bumpers. It has now changed hands many times as Ford divested its parts plants to deal with the UAW. About a mile north was a federal prison which I believe to be of medium security. Many of my neighbors, relatives, and friends’ parents worked at one of these places.
I graduated from Milan High School in 1988 after attending Milan Area Schools for my primary education.
I met my (ex-)wife in October 1987 at the beginning of my senior year in high school. We were both working at McDonald’s in Milan and started dating soon after meeting. We got engaged three years later and married on August 8, 1992.
I was accepted into the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, where I continued my education. I graduated with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering (BSME) in May 1992. Two summer internships made it clear that I needed to get a graduate degree to find a job that interested me. Receiving a fellowship for three years of graduate studies from the National Science Foundation my senior year made the decision to pursue a doctorate easy.
I started my graduate education immediately after obtaining my BSME. I decided to stay at the University of Michigan to get my master’s degree since I was getting married that summer. Being familiar with the environment, I wrote a thesis and finished my MS degree in three semesters. At this point, it was clear to me that I wanted to be a professor. Thus, as getting all your degrees at one university is somewhat frowned upon in academia, I decided to work towards my doctorate at another university. After being accepted to MIT, CalTech and UC-Berkeley, I decided UC-Berkeley was the best fit and moved to California.
I lived in and around Berkeley, California, for five years as I worked towards my doctorate. The National Science Foundation Fellowship paid for two years of my education and living expenses. The other three years, I worked as a research or teaching assistant.
I have one brother, Lee, who is two years younger than me, lives in the D.C. area, and works at the National Institute of Justice (which, not surprisingly, spends a lot of money determining how to best deal with domestic abuse).