Dennis Moreau:  

Life: ----- I was born and grew up in southwest Louisiana. I built my first computer (actually a sequence controlled accumulator) and wrote my first computer program in the eigth grade (1970 ish), at the enthusiastic urging of Sister Mary Nell (Little Flower School, Arnaudville, LA) ... since then, programming, building, thinking and writing about computers has generally been my refuge from the real world, as my wonderful wife and all of my friends will readily attest! School: ------- My family moved a lot, so I didn't really feel that I "belonged" in the schools that I attended. Then again, who really gets through high school feeling completely secure and integrated into their respective peer groups? ;) In retrospect, it still seems that feeling more a part of the community would have been nice.... but I am who I am, because of my experiences... so... College: -------- I started college way before I had either the discipline or desire to do serious coursework. I guess high school was just too easy and real computers far too seductive.... I was totally NOT ready to work on a degree... After a false start in EE, I worked for a while at a number of jobs. I spent some time offshore and in entry level programming positions. Eventually, I got motivated, discovered self confidence and focused my interests with the help of the world's best teacher, mentor, advisor, role model and my best friend for ages Dr. Wayne D. Dominick. That made all the difference... I finished my BS, Cum Laude and completed my subsequent masters and doctoral work in three years under NASA/JPL sponsorship. Note to Self: I need to remember not to push Alexander too hard to attack things on arbitrary and aggressive timelines. After all, if he isn't solving Putnam problems or stiff systems of PDEs in his head by 5th grade, what's the real harm??!? ;) (he can always learn conjugate gradient techniques in junior high;) Workplace: ---------- My family's motto is "If you can walk, you can work; If you can drive you can work more jobs". My paternal grandmother's advice to me was to "Never be afraid of work." and she re-iterated that ethic, by example throughout her entire life. My first real job was installing burglar alarms, in the 9th grade, for J and J alarms in Opelousas. I also drove "hot shot" for National Supply Co., gotta love those oilfeild board roads! I worked offshore most summers and learned how to cook (for 400 people) on West Delta 75, GI Block 16, Exxon DB1, and the Earnie Miller (derrick tender). I "doodle-bugged" for seismic and exploration companies and learned how to makeup really big electronic cables (for monitoring explosives detonations). Nothing like stacking a few miles of cable on a barge, in the middle of the swamps, by hand! Cleared up any hesitation I had about finishing college! I did a lot of programming for Lou Ana Foods, Ed Roy's Ltd, NASA, Baylor College of Medicine, and about a hundred consulting clients. I truly enjoyed being a professor of computer science (UL) and computational science (BCM). I liked teaching Grad School and upper level Undergrads the most. I'll do more teaching some day... when I can afford the massive salary reduction or when I can both teach and direct product research. Most recently, I've cultivated my talent for complex software design/product strategy. And no-one has a better, more capable team of developers than I do. I love moving "bleeding edge" research and hardcore theory into realworld products that blow away the universally less well thought out competition. In the future, I really want to spend some serious time on the terrifically hard and not so profitable problems in very large dataset visualization and analysis. That, and spend more time exploring mountains, islands and rugged coastal terrain, with Cindy and Alex. After all, with high speed internet, I can live just about anywhere! Places I'd love to visit again: ------------------------------- Banff: top of Allenby Pass on horses; Victoria, BC; Paris: especially Chartre Switzerland: the Eiger and Jung Frau; London; San Francisco: Pt. Reyes Santa Fe; San Antonio; Manhattan; DC (Georgetown); Baltimore (crab royale) Philadelphia; LA (Mt. Wilson, Cal Tech); ...Expand for more