My name is Andrew Paradis, born in northern Maine (Fort Kent) in 1968. I'm 6'3, a hefty 250 (I like pumpkin pie, and most other pumpkin products) and I've worn glasses since the second grade. Now, about the links shown at left.

The Inquiry Academy is a site (no longer active) I made to help home-schoolers find useful math and science home-school materials.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at UMaine is where I am right now, as a PhD candidate in theoretical physics. Officially, I study condensed matter theory, but the way I describe it to non-physicists is "I study how systems of things behave when they are forced to be out of equilibrium." Some examples of such systems, outside of condensed matter, are: cell membranes, cells, plants, insects, humans, societies, and ecosystems. Yes, it's quite a representative list! Basically, all living things are in non-equilibrium. If we were in equilibrium with our surroundings, we would be at room temperature with no local concentration of hydrocarbons or other minerals (i.e., we'd be dead and returned to the Earth). Also at UMaine, I teach tutorial and laboratory sections in the introductory physics courses, which is really my favorite part of my job since I deeply love teaching.

Hyde School was the private boarding school I worked at for four years. I credit Hyde with making me a much better teacher than I could have become on my own! Faculty at Hyde are the ultimate multi-taskers. Not only do we teach courses (I taught physics and AP calculus), but we coach sports (I coached football and track), we perform in the school-wide performing arts shows (I played piano and sang baritone), and we interact deeply with the families of the students (I worked with about ten families every year, leading seminars and facilitating honest exchanges between parents and children). In the end, I learned to be far more sensitive to individual learning needs. I learned how to help nuture a student from being timid and self-conscious to being curious and self-confident. I learned about myself.

Between teaching and being at UMaine, I worked at Occupational Health Research. It is a medical software company in central Maine (no, that's not a paradox - just a rarity!) that specializes in management software for occupational health clinics. I started out as a technical writer, became their web designer, then worked as a Java programmer building web-interfaces for the clinics and their corporate employers. I learned a great deal at OHR, but of primary importance was how to be a good listener - how to listen to a customer, understand what he or she wants, then design and code it into existence. I also learned to be slightly more thick-skinned than I was when I started. Coding software means your work will be criticized openly and often! I learned to separate myself from my work, so that a negative comment about some design element did not make me think I was a bad person. In fact, this is good training for my future career as a physicist, since my published work will be peer reviewed and if there is an error, I'll hear about it!

I was an infantryman (I carried an M249 SAW) in the US Marines during the first Gulf War in 1991. My unit was Bravo Company, 1/25th Marines, a Reserve unit called up for desert warfare because of our specialized training. B Co., 1/25 was stationed in New Hampshire where we trained extensively at mountain and cold-weather operations. It was, therefore, a perfect example of military intelligence that we were sent to a very non-mountainous and rather warm-weather theater of operations! Although I joke about that, my experience as a Marine was, and still is, an important part of my life. I had just failed out of college (yes, I know that I'm now a PhD student in physics - a failure doesn't mean you have to quit!), mostly because I was a geek/nerd who played too many role-playing games for my own good. I was at Boston University, studying electrical engineering on a full academic scholarship, and I lost it all. I needed self-discipline, and I knew I couldn't do it on my own. One of my uncles was a Marine in Vietnam, so I chose the Corps as my method of digging my way out of being a lazy slacker. It worked! I learned that I was capable of far more than I had ever given myself credit for, and that perhaps I was more than I had previously allowed myself to be. Boot Camp and Infantry School literally kicked my *ss, and I came out with far more mental toughness than with what I entered Parris Island.

I play correspondence chess at Chessworld.net, and it's much fun. I like having several days to make my move, because I usually only have a few minutes here or there during my day so I can't actually sit down and play a full over-the-board game. I guess you'd call me a low-intermediate player. I know the basics, I know some standard openings, and I have a handle on standard strategies and tactics. But I'm not very aggressive, and I don't know how to defend against an aggressive attack. As with most things worth doing, playing chess is a continual learning experience!

On the personal side, I have been married since 1996 to a wonderful woman who puts up with the many idiosyncyasies and eccentricities inherent in a scientific mind. She is amazed that while I study and love physics, I lack the common sense to button my coat if it is chilly outside... She finds it amusing that part of my research involves chaos theory, given the state I would keep the house in if she weren't there! And, somehow, she manages a forced smile each and every time I get excited about some cool science-y thing and feel the need to tell her all about it...

I could write way too much about our daughter... :) Suffice it to say that being a father has made me a better human being. I am less selfish. I am more responsible. I have a deeper sense of duty and motivation. I am more closely in touch with an emotional side that I had previously kept hidden away. I enjoy life more, because I am responsible for a life myself. She's the coolest kid I know. When we adopted her from Russian Siberia, I almost backed out at the last minute. I was afraid of failing as a father, and I didn't want to fail at something so important. Luckily, my wife slapped sense into me, and I can honestly say that bringing our daughter home and starting our little family was the most deeply moving experience of my life.

Religiously/Philosophically, I am Zen Buddhist. Recently I realized that I had been being a pretty lazy Buddhist, so I recommitted myself to living according to the Five Precepts. As such, I have become vegetarian and stopped drinking alcohol (other than a glass of red wine every so often, since the scientific evidence of it being beneficial continues to grow - the idea is not to become intoxicated). I am still working on eliminating caffeinne... but I'm making progress. I was raised Catholic, and was a member of Christian (Baptist) churches while in the Marines, so I understand the Christian perspective, but I never really accepted the idea of a Supreme Being overseeing everything. It's hard to be Christian if you don't believe in God! So rather than be hypocritical, I became Zen Buddhist, which does not require belief in a Supreme Being (although some types of Buddhism do elevate the Buddha to god-like status, Zen Buddhism does not). I practice meditation, and I do my best to accept the Four Noble Truths and to live by the Five Precepts and the Eight-fold Path. I don't do this because of what I may obtain in an after-life (since I do not believe in the concept of Heaven), but because I feel by following these guidelines I will be a better person, more humble, more compassionate, more able to moderate the pulls of modern life. My fundamental belief, if you want to call it that, is that each thing should be done for its own sake, not for some potential reward or punishment. I play chess to be better at playing chess. I teach to be a better teacher. I live to be a better human being. If some benefit comes because of the work I have done, then that is a nice side-effect, but it should never be the primary cause of my choice of doing. Since I am in graduate school, I'll use an example of studying. I study and do problems not to perform well on exams, but to better understand the material for its own sake. Granted, a side-effect of understanding the material is that I will do well on exams, but the difference is where I place my mental energy. If I place it on doing well, I may learn nothing. But if I place it in learning, I may do well. In the end, I'd rather learn something! If you are interested, feel free to read more about the Eight-fold Path, which is the basic guide to Buddhism. I also find the philosophy of Taoism to be very useful to me, and I carry a copy of the Tao Te Ching in my backpack! In fact, several passages deal directly with being an effective teacher (the book is basically a guide to becoming a worthy leader, a worthy person). For example, the end of verse 17:

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!"

As far as hobbies, etc., I play the piano (although I mostly just read fake-book chords), I enjoy nordic skiing, and I love to cook. When I get the chance I'll throw pots on my wheel and fire them up in a little pit kiln I built out back. I have always enjoyed singing (in the car, mostly), but recently I've done it more publicly (at my wife's church, etc.) and I'm looking forward to auditioning for a spot with UMaine's choral group. I'm fascinated by helicopters and robotics, and I have this odd habit of taking off, picking up, and staring at my shoes while pretending they are rocket ships... Like I said, my wife must have infinite patience to stay married to me!

I am also interested in carpentry and general construction. I built our little house in western Maine, and I work as a carpenter (remodeling living quarters at lumber camps) on the occaisional weekend up in the Allagash woods of northern Maine for a timber company. I am currently trying to figure out why, sometimes when we turn off the bathroom light, a GFI breaker gets tripped in the kitchen... Hmmmmmmmm...

No one other than a few friends and relatives will read this far into the document, so I could say anything I wanted at this point... :) But instead I'll close.