In what follows, you will learn about my career path from electrical engineering, through academic philosophy, and to data science.  

I have always had an interest in math and science.  My undergraduate studies were in electrical engineering, electromagnetics.  During those years, I discovered philosophy, which eventually led me to pursue philosophical studies after a few years of working as an engineer.  Although I have broad interests philosophically, my fascination with science was reconciled with my philosophical pursuits by specializing in philosophy of science and, in particular, philosophy of physics.  After several years of university teaching, I am involved in another transition -- this time into data science.  Given how much I have thought about data, evidence, logic, inference, explanation, and causation in my investigations into the history and philosophy of science, data science is a natural extension of my philosophical interests and past experience.

Data science has been described as the marriage of the techniques of statistics with modern computing resources to derive value from data.  Since 2019, I have been acquiring the skills of a data scientist by means of online courses through Coursera, Udemy, and Udacity.  I have completed two programs of study (called "nanodegrees") through Udacity -- their Programming for Data Science with Python nanodegree and their Data Analyst nanodegree.   Through these course bundles, I have learned to program with SQL and Python.  And, through a sequence of Coursera courses -- called "Statistics with R" -- as well as a Udemy course, I have learned the R programming language.  Through many projects, I have developed a solid foundation for exploring data, wrangling data, and visualizing data.  My next steps will take me deeper into the study and applications of machine learning.

My interest in philosophical questions reaches back to my childhood, wondering how to reconcile the claims of both religion and science.  As a student of electrical engineering, I didn't want to simply understand how to use Maxwell's electromagnetic equations; I was also curious as to how they were discovered and why we should believe them to be true.

Eventually, my curiosity lead me to graduate study in philosophy, including a Ph.D. from the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California, Irvine and a Postdoc at The University of Western Ontario (now called "Western University").  My dissertation research concerned a problem of apparent incompatibility between quantum mechanics and the special theory of relativity insofar as measurement is concerned, an aspect of the so-called "measurement problem" in the philosophy of quantum mechanics.  I have had an ongoing interest in scientific methodology, including the oversimplified treatment of science known as "The Scientific Method."

I found academic employment in teaching-focused contexts -- at Carleton College (MN), the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley.   The positions in Minnesota and Wisconsin placed me within driving distance of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where I routinely interacted with faculty, graduate students, and visiting researchers associated with the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science.  For several years, I have been a fellow at the Center.

I pursued undergraduate studies at Michigan Technological University, where I studied electrical engineering with an emphasis in electromagnetics and communications.  My first employment after completing my bachelors degree was at Hughes Aircraft Co. in El Segundo, California.  At Hughes, I worked on microwave devices for communication satellites.  My engineering experience also led to summer jobs and internships in engineering, as well as several physics lab teaching assistantships, while I pursued graduate studies.