Kevin Long

Background

• Work: I joined Texas Tech in 2007, after nine years at the Computational Sciences and Mathematics Research Department of Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. At Sandia Livermore, I worked on a variety of mathematical problems with applications to national defense, energy and the environment, and biomedical instrumentation. Before that, I worked on engineering problems at Beam Technologies, taught physics at the State University of New York at Brockport, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts.
  
  
• Education: My professional training was in theoretical astrophysics. My PhD is from Princeton University, where I did a thesis with David Spergel on mathematical methods for studying the dynamical behavior of barred spiral galaxies. My undergraduate degree is from the University of Maryland, after transfer from Prince George's Community College. While at Maryland, I worked with Leo Blitz on observations of clumping structure in the interstellar medium and on computational simulation of star cluster dynamics. During my time at Maryland, I was also a student intern at the National Institute of Standards and Technology where I worked on computational algorithms for nondestructve detection of manufacturing defects in metal parts.
  
  Before all that formal education, I was a "chronic truant" who skipped school to stay home reading history, doing woodworking, building free-flight model airplanes, programming computers, bicycling, and playing road hockey. That was usually more useful than attending school because the existing school programs for bright kids simply assigned more work, not more challenging work. So I stayed home most of the time, and dropped out officially as soon as it was legal.
  
  
• Life beyond math, physics, and computing
  • I'm married to Victoria Howle, another mathematician. Yes, we do often talk about math over dinner.
  • Vicki and I have twins, Russell and Charlotte.
  • There's much more to life than science. My non-scientific interests include early modern European history, 20th century history, woodworking, and generally reading everything I can get my hands on on just about every subject.
  • I am a native of Maryland, and am a fan of the Redskins and Steelers in football and the Capitals in hockey.