A: My passion for all things STEAMy probably began as a young teenager with a Gilbert chemistry set that I received one Christmas. I set up a lab in our basement and did various experiments, most of which would be illegal today due to safety laws. My high school experience at a public school in New Jersey was a standard academic track that somehow led me to majoring in Physics at Yale University.

A: In 1963 I began my military service: three years in the US Army, most of it at White Sands Missile Range working on National Missile Defense, long before anyone called it that. This Cold War program involved shooting at “bullets” with other bullets, an amazingly complicated challenge.

In 1966, I started my 34-year career in information technology with GE in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. Near the end of my first year, I had an opportunity to get into a new field: computer software. The applications were in controlling Earth satellite behavior, although most of it was very classified, and to this day, I am not allowed to talk about it. Along the way, I achieved a Master of Science in Engineering from Penn.

The last ten years or so of my GE-Martin Marietta-Lockheed Martin years saw me move into NASA business and commercial applications and also into project management rather than hands-on technical work. My proudest moments are around a NASA program called the Second Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Ground Terminal. (Try to get that onto a business card!) This is a 400-million-dollar communication hub in the New Mexico desert that services the Hubble Telescope, the now-retired Space Shuttle, and other NASA satellites.

A: I retired from Lockheed Martin in 2000 and in a few months began teaching algebra at Archbishop Carroll in Radnor for 145 students! Luckily that commitment was only for a few months. After that, I began at Shipley teaching what we called it then: Standard Physics—one section with twelve students. I must have been doing all right, since a few years later I was fulltime and teaching Honors Physics, AP Physics, and Astronomy. (Yes, I have my own telescope and have been gazing at the universe for decades.)

A: I am a member of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a subscriber to Villanova Theater, and a season subscriber to the Pennsylvania Ballet for the past 30 years.

A: I love physics and astronomy. I have always been fascinated by the beauty and mystery of the universe. Going outside at night in a dark location and looking up is a wonderous experience for me: All those stars and planets; some close and some billions of light years away. How we learned about them is an amazing, centuries-long story. I think that story is what most interests me. How Newton and Galileo puzzled over age-old questions using nothing but quill pens, parchment, and their brains! And the many scientists and engineers who built on the earlier understandings to move our knowledge forward, sometimes slowly and at other times rapidly. Passing on that story as well as the technical details to students is crucial, especially in the fast-moving, technology-oriented time in which we live.

A: I also believe that science and math, especially physics, can help students to think in a rigorous way and to develop problem solving skills. Life is full of problems to solve. Having a problem-solving mindset can help a person in whatever vocation they choose. I had a professor in graduate school who asserted that 80% of solving a problem is defining the problem. What he was getting at is that the problem we seemed to be faced with is often just a symptom of some deeper issue. If we can define the basic issue, solutions are more likely to fall into place.

A: My classes are oriented to encourage students to think. Given some problem, ask yourself, “What is the problem about. What are the facts that are being presented?” These thoughts help to identify the tools and approaches that are useful for that application. Did your result make sense? As I say in physics, if your answer violates the laws of physics or common sense, you had better try another solution. On the other hand, you have to be sensitive to the “better idea.” Just because we always have done something in a particular manner, doesn’t make it the appropriate approach today. Times change, ideas change, pay attention! One of my favorite quotations is from Isaac Asimov, author of science and science fiction: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'”

A: I believe in setting high standards for student achievement. Back in my GE days, Jack Welch, the CEO, told a room full of managers to never penalize someone for taking the big swing and failing. As I paraphrase it, the bleachers are out there waiting for you to hit the ball there. Don’t be afraid to fail, focus all of your energy on succeeding!