This is the Dow Building on North Campus. This is where I attend class,
work, and spend most of my time. I also sleep here on a regular basis
-- sometimes even outside of lecture!
I'm a senior at the University of Michigan, majoring in Chemical Engineering. This means that I live in the Dow Building, pull all-nighters on a regular basis, and generally subject myself to abuse that I would be arrested for if I tried to do it to anyone else. I was born in a rural part of western Pennsylvania (yes, I know this is rather redundant), but I've lived in Troy, Michigan since I was three. If you attend U of M, this means that you probably know at least four people from my high school -- at least fifty of us come here every year.
This is the Dow Building on North Campus. This is where I attend class,
work, and spend most of my time. I also sleep here on a regular basis
-- sometimes even outside of lecture!
I spent my first two years here living on 3rd Rumsey in West Quad, the best
floor of the best house of the best dorm on campus. Twelve foot ceilings
and a sink in every room. The exploits of this hall's inhabitants have
since become legendary. However, modesty (and federal obscenity statutes)
forbid me to mention them. I now live in an apartment with two fellow Troy
Athens grads and a transplanted New Yorker who has been adopted into the
Troy crowd. We are engaged in an ongoing search for working closet
doors, cheap Canada Dry, and objects heavier than pillows to throw at one
another.
As if the regular ChE curriculum doesn't keep me busy enough, I spend large amounts of time on other projects. Since the beginning of my sophomore year, I've been active in the local student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). It's a professional organization, and at this level we concentrate on bringing speakers from industry into our weekly luncheons to give students a glimpse of what Chemical Engineers do in the real world. We also do peer counseling, sell discount textbooks, and organize social events. (Yes, we do do other things besides just sponsor Happy Hours at the local bars!) Somehow, I wound up getting elected as president for the 96-97 academic year, so take a look at its homepage to see the lion's share of my current web-maintenance activities.
Since my freshman year, I have been working for Professor Stacy Bike and Derek Rucker on Derek's Ph.D. research. We are investigating the rheology of filled polymers. This means that we are looking at what happens to the flow behavior of polymers when they are blended with other materials. In conducting this research, I have learned how to use several high-tech instruments, such as the Hitachi S-800 Scanning Electron Microscope, the Bohlin CS-50 and VOR rheometers, the Brabender polymer mixer, and the J.C.Penny "Chef's Pot" deep-fryer.
In the copious free time that these activities leave me, I do things like
work on my home page. This explains the rather pitiful condition of what
you see here.
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No dolphins were harmed in the construction of this home page.
However, two field mice, a ladybug and a potted fern were slightly
annoyed.
