I just moved down to Houston this summer after living in New York and Massachusetts all my life. I'm currently going to Rice for a PhD in Physics. My ideal long term goal is to become a professor, but I'm open to other possibilities.

Although I do love my research, I'm not one of those graduate student whose life revolves around work and never gets out of the lab. I'm usually able to keep my nights free for activities like basketball, learning how to cook new meals, writing plays or short stories (I'm working on one now about the struggles of a star high school basketball player in coming out of the closet...which I should totally get a move on with to capitalize on the Jason Collins story), and general social activities (pub trivia!).

For my PhD research I'll be studying ultracold plasma dynamics. Feel free to ask about what exactly that is if you're interested! Other than that, I'm mostly trying to balance grad school and my social life while figuring out ways to force myself out of my comfort zone (for example: creating an online dating profile).

I also plan on starting to do some freelance tutoring soon to earn a little extra income.

Cooking, trivia, teaching, taking initiative, coding, physics (and anything else mathematical). I've also got a pretty solid 3-point shot.

That I act nothing like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. Seriously, whenever I meet people from this website, they often say that they were worried I was going to be like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. I swear, though the show has its funny (and scarily accurate) moments, I feel like it's greatly set back the social reputation of physicists (not that we had great reputations to begin with).

Oh you may have also noticed that I overuse parentheticals (like, a lot).

Books: Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons, Pale Fire, Lolita, The Great Gatsby (anyone else REALLY excited for the movie? Leo is a perfect choice to play Gatsby), The Art of Fielding, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Euripides, Outliers, Animorphs, Goosebumps, y'know, the classics

Movies: Godfather I and II, Fantasia, the most recent Batman Trilogy, Memento, The Prestige, The Wrestler, 50/50, Trainspotting, Black Swan, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. I also have a soft spot for The Mighty Ducks trilogy and Space Jam.

Shows: South Park, Arrested Development, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Archer...so, basically anything that can make me laugh.

Music: Queens of the Stone Age, Rush, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Porcuipine Tree, Alice in Chains, Talking Heads, The Cure, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, Kanye, Frank Ocean, Streetlight Manifesto, Catch 22, Outkast

Food: Seafood, pasta, and Mexican food. I've been working on adding some Cajun dishes to my diet as well. I make a pretty good jambalaya for a New Yorker.

Friends and Family- obviously

Good Food & a good diet- I love to cook, so I usually make time to cook myself a good and healthy dinner no matter how busy I am.

A sense that I'm making a positive impact- Obviously I didn't choose to go to grad school to make a ton of money. I chose to go because I think that research is the career that best utilizes my skillset to improve the world.

An interesting job - I tried the whole '9-5 office job' thing for a year and hated it. I much prefer having tough and interesting problems to solve that require me to learn something new every day. That's why I'm enjoying grad school so far.

Coffee to start my day- I'm definitely one of those people that can't function well in the morning without it.

Occasional competitive outlets- I'm a pretty competitive person, so I like to play some basketball or card games every so often.

My future, particularly whether or not going to grad school was the right decision.

Lately I've been hosting game nights Friday night at my apartment. Other options include nights out in Rice Village or occasional Rockets, Astros, or Aeroes games. I won't lie though, there's also the occasional Friday night spent watching netflix and goofing around online.

I used to watch professional wrestling (WWE) fairly religiously with my old college roommates.

Feel free to message me if you liked my profile or want to get to know me better. Bonus points if you're up for going to a Rockets, Astros, or Aeros game, want to check out some live music, or want a workout buddy.

Obviously the whole "dating an awesome girl" thing would be pretty nice, but if you're just looking for a friend that's cool too; I could use some more friends in the area.