Heather Hooper:
CLASS OF 1992
John Rennie High SchoolClass of 1992
Pointe claire, QC
Cambridge, MA
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyClass of 2000
Cambridge, MA
John Abbott CollegeClass of 1994
Ste. anne de bellevue, QC
Heather's Story
Life
I live in Cambridge, England, in a flat with two cats and my two awesome flatmates. SMB is British, and NKL is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We cook a lot, watch TV and gossip on the couch, and occasionally have a night out. SMB explains the finer points of British Culture to NKL and I on a regular basis, which is handy, since we're unsophisticated foreigners. ;)
I had a goth period in college, then went very hippie-vegetarian, and am now yer average Canadian liberal (or socialist, as my American bf would say). My hair has been a variety of different colours, but it's currently purple.
Hobbies
I love most music. I sang for a long time in college, but I don't have time for it right now.
I got very into Lindy-Hop dancing for a few years, and have always loved to hike and camp, but my knee got very bad a few years ago, so I haven't been able to do much physical activity for a while. I had surgery on it in January, 2007, though, so I'm hoping to get back to being active soon! Right now I lift weights and bike a lot.
I love to LARP (Live Action Role Playing) but only when I actually get to hunt people through the woods in the small hours of the morning and hit them with padded weapons. The non-hitty LARPing doesn't do it for me.
I'm about to start volunteering as a Rape Crisis Counselor.
I read a lot, love to watch sci-fi/fantasy/forensic science shows, and I play World of Warcraft when I have time for it (i.e. once a month or so at the moment).
I adore travelling. I'm hoping to go to Africa sometime soon.
Pets
I had rats for a long time (including Tadpole the Warrior Princess!), and now I have two furry little pests who call themselves cats. One is fat and extremely grumpy, but really cute, the other is skinny and hyper and one of the more adorable creatures I've ever seen. Their names are Kozmo and Miso. They're both 9. I brought them to England from the US. That was an adventure for all concerned.
Relationships
Well, let's see. I'm a serial monogamist and I've been engaged twice. I'm not married, so clearly it didn't take either time. Currently, I'm in a long-term long-distance relationship with my lovely boyfriend of almost 3 years, who still lives in Boston. He's a physiotherapist, which is very handy when my knee acts up. He's also lovely, kind, and has a slight Boston accent, which is cute. Oh, and he's damned hot for a 40-something-year-old.
School
Yeah, well, you all know about JRHS, so....
College
After JRHS I wen...Expand for more
t to John Abbott for 2 years and majored in Pure and Applied Sciences. Big suprise there!
Then I moved to Boston and did a BSc in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. It was an awesome place to be, and I lived in a crazy environmentalist vegetarian bisexual hippie commune called pika, which we ran/fixed/cleaned ourselves, for 4 years. It was a really amazing experience. I got to do fieldwork in a bunch of really cool places, including the desert in California, Barbados, and St. Lucia. Unfortunately, I became very ill during my third year at MIT, with what would eventually be diagnosed as Lyme Disease, so I had to take 2 years off. Those years were less than fun, but I got through them. I finally graduated in 2000.
I worked for a year in surface geophysics, but it wasn't what I wanted (I wanted to do environmental and archaeological applications, and we were mostly doing construction) so I quit and went back to school at.... MIT again! Craziness.
My MSc (in Geosystems) was insane. It only took a year, but it was WAY too much work for a year. I didn't do anything but school. Kinda sucked, but hey, I got the piece of paper out of it. Luckily, I happened to see a notice for a job at my lab, and when I graduated, I began working for an amazing company! See my workplace stuff.
After 4.5 years working, I was offered a place at the University of Cambridge (England), so I up and moved again, and here I am, in my second year of a PhD in Seismology. It's hard work, but I'm really enjoying it. I love my research, my lab is great, and I like being in school again, and getting to attend seminars, discussion groups, etc. Let's hope that I'll eventually be Dr. Hooper.... My thesis title (although it may change) is Crustal Attenuation and Source Parameters in the Middle East.
Workplace
In 2000-2001, I worked as a Field Geophysicist at a surface geophysics company called Radar Solutions International, in Waltham, MA, for a year. It was a good experience. I did tons of fieldwork, learned a lot about Ground Penetrating Radar and magnetometry, and enjoyed finally having some money!
From 2002-2006 I worked at Weston Geophysical Corporation, in Lexington, MA, as a Research Seismologist. I got to do some fieldwork (Arizona - beautiful!), but mostly I did lots of research on earthquakes and explosions, and how the waves from them travel through the crust of the earth. I loved Weston, and I may well go back there when I'm done with my PhD.
Military
Nah....
Register for Free to view all details!
Reunions
Register for Free to start a reunion event!