My parents where both in the Peace Corps working in Borneo, Malaysia
Going to a StuPOR really makes one need to look back, and remember what it is that brought you to such a point in your life. I started things in the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps you say? Well yes, I was born due, in no small part, to the fact that my parents where both in the Peace Corps working in Borneo, Malaysia. I suppose that this detail, although interesting, hasn't really shaped my life, because I was back in the States before I could really be affected by the Malaysian culture, much less remember it. So, no: we can't blame the Peace Corps for leading me to StuPOR.
A much more realistic source of my 'StuPORness' would be my realization in middle and high school, that, while my friends thought that math and physics were a pain in the butt, I was intrigued. I actually, (and yes I can say this out loud now) liked all those equations and the fact that you could apply them to the real world. This led directly....ok, eventually, to an undergraduate degree in physics from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Of less importance then, but with hindsight, obviously having been an important influence, was an interest in fluid dynamics. After graduating I think a common question is 'What the hell now?...' And my answer was....atmospheric sciences. But like many answers, this one wasn't an absolute, and it soon changed to....oceanography (had you worried for a second there, huh?).
So now we are getting close to our goal. I moved to Corvallis (from Seattle, WA) to begin studies at Oregon State University in the College of Oceanography (under the wise influence of Ted Strub). My first research work focused on data from the California Current jet. This led to the goal of describing the transport across this jet. Which led to the use of lagrangian models of cross jet transport. Which led to..... Oh, wait a minute. Somewhere in there the first StuPOR happened. And I was hooked. I came back to another StuPOR. And then, after a two year hiatus, a third. This is obviously becoming an addiction.
Dylan Righi