I joined the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in 1991. I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA; I received my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Studies from Millsaps College in Jackson, MS. My interests include encryption, computational paradigms, programming language design, computer networks and operating systems, computer simulation, queueing theory, computer and network security, and pretty much anything else I can think of; I am currently doing research into a new encryption method. I have publications in several conference proceedings, C++ Report, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, and IEEE Transfer. I generally teach four courses per semester. For more details take a look at what I do all week.

      I live in the country (“find nowhere and locate the middle”) with eighteen cats (The Dread Pirate Wadsworth, MomTom, Blackstar, BT, Midnight, Squealer, Pegsy, DrDipDip, MrPickles, MsBuster, Punky, Professor Cosmos, Chaos, Кошка, Gilbert, Shadow, JackJack, and Angel, who is the only cat not related to any of the others), five dogs (Eggs and Timmy, Sasha, a purebred Siberian Husky named Snow, and RifRaf – we often address him as RifRat, as he is just about the same size as a rat), a Scarlet Macaw named Princess (even though Princess is a he) who tries to answer the telephone when it rings (and tells the kids to shut up when they get too loud), and, last but most definitely not least, Christine, my fiancée, and her children Billy (who is thirteen) and Lauren (who is ten). My hobbies include piloting single- and multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft and gliders, sailboating and sailboat racing (flying is sailing on the wind; sailing is flying on the water), collecting “pig stuff,” (figurines, pictures, stuffed toy pigs, boxer shorts, t-shirts, neckties, posters, etc.) playing electric bass and keyboards, reading science fiction, keeping my karate skills up to speed, and cutting wood for my wood stove. My main musical influences are Keith Emerson (keyboards) and Chris Squire (bass). I consider coffee drinking a job requirement, although I have had to swear off on doctor’s orders.

      A little bit about my computics Turing machine: Instead of “computer science,” the field really should be called “computics.” Computer science is a fusion of mathematics and physics – mathematics defines the fundamental computational limits of what a computing device can do; physics defines its fundamental physical limits. So, from computer science, mathematics and physics, we get computics. Which, of course, makes me a computicist.