WHO IS THIS GUY NAMED TODD?

What a long, strange trip it's been. As I look back on my life, I am amazed at some of the twists and turns it's taken. It's even stranger to think that, given current life expectancies, I've about as much ahead of me as behind.

First, some background. This is the extremely condensed version. I am in the process of writing my autobiography, but only a few people will ever see that.

I am a native of Green Bay Wisconsin. I was born there and grew up in Green Bay and DePere.

I graduated from DePere High School in 1979. At graduation, I had been awarded an ROTC full ride scholorship to the University of Colorado in Boulder.

I attended CU for two years. During that time I studied a little, partied a lot, and dealt with a lot of the "growing up" issues that most of us face at some point. After two years there, the dean of the university invited me to explore other career opportunities. In my defence, I will say that the CU engineering program at the time prided itself in a first year dropout rate of greater than 50 percent. I simply fit into their planned program.

I returned to DePere and took work where I could find it - delivering pizzas, driving a school bus, and seasonal work at the local canning factory. This was not the career path I wanted, so I started looking around for other paths. It turns out that I ended up on a path leading into the local Navy recruiters office. See another portion of this site for info regarding my Navy years.

While still in the Navy, I met the sister of one of my roommates and fell in love. When I got out of the Navy, I went to join her in southern California rather than go back to Wisconsin. My Navy training got me a job in the aerospace industry, and I started to settle in. Kathy and were married in May of 1991, and have been happily together since.

After a few years, I decided to go back to school and finish the degree I started in 1979. After 9 years of working full time and going to school part time, I finally finished in March of 2003. I am now the proud holder of a B.S. Degree in physics from the California State University, Los Angeles.

I am currently working at Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena. Click here for more information about my job and the project I work on.