I was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1950, received a Masters degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1972 and became a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1976. After 20 years as an actuary I decided I was never going to become truly excited by it, and in 1996 I obtained a PhD in Physics at Brandeis University, working with Bulbul Chakraborty.