About Me

I am a planetary scientist who loves to travel and the outdoors. I lived in Rochester, MN (about 75 miles south of the Twin Cities) from age three to eighteen before leaving to study at Cornell University. I miss Minnesota's relaxed pace, its strange sense of humor, and spending summers on a lake. Since then, I've been lucky to continue to live in some of America's best small cities including Ithaca, NY and Boulder, CO, where I studied for my university degrees. Both places are surrounded by incredible natural beauty that provide great terrain for exploring. In Colorado, I turned a hobby of skiing down small river hills into a more serious passion that I've now enjoyed all over the world. While in southern France with my wife, Caroline Szczepanski, we explored, hiked and skied the Côte d'Azur, where the Alps meet the Mediterranean, as well as the surrounding regions of Europe. We returned to the US for positions at Northwestern near Chicago before both of us accepted professorships at Michigan State University. Now in mid-Michigan, we are settling into the suburban life but are always planning our next adventure.

Taking in some Angkor Thom shade with Drew E.

Cheering the Spartans on with Caroline S., Alec J., and Annie Y.