User:Tom Lougheed

I am a doctor of mathematics, pursuing research in (collegiate) Mathematics Education, as well as applied statistics, numerical analysis, and celestial mechanics.

I favor integrated science and mathematics education: I suspect that math is best learned at the same time as some meaningful use of it. Of course that’s how I learned math, and since I studied math simultaneously with physics and astronomy in college and grad school, my opinion could be just an example of the baby duck syndrome (which, for example, causes computer programmers to unreasonably persist in using the first programming language they learned).

Formerly I worked as a scientific software developer and analyst specializing in Celestial Mechanics and Numerical Analysis. I did that as a contractor for NASA, NRL, and other government agencies from 1982–2006.

When not at work I was a docent for the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy from about 1995–2006. I’m still interested in astronomy education and amateur astronomy, but until I finish graduate school, that’s on hold; although I am a sometime member of the Palouse Astronomical Society.

I’ve been a fan of the mythology and folktales of early western cultures since childhood. That’s led to an interest in the archaic religion of various Indo-European peoples, which might help mythographers infer the lost parts of Celtic mythology by comparison to mythologies of other, related cultures.

When my radio-controlled clocks all went on strike over the summer, I picked back up a childhood interest in shortwave radio. Before I had saved up enough to buy a receiver that would go down to 60 kHz, they all decided to suddenly return to duty (on 5 Oct 2014), so I’m still in the dark about what happened. In the meantime I’m continuing to experiment with augmenting their longwave antennas.