Childhood Components
David's career trajectory was forever changed when he read a children's biography book on this famous, crazy-haired scientist.
Who is Albert Einstein?
David and Karina went to Japan in late March and early April 2025 to view this elusive Japanese symbol.
What are cherry blossoms?
This plant's extract is commonly used in Southeast Asian desserts; its name has an edit distance of 1 from a commonly used Python package.
What is pandan?
David's first large Pokemon GO event took place at this park, more famously known for hosting a 4 day music festival every year.
What is Grant Park?
David's first research project focused on the performance of this type of device, which can be found in places as diverse as satellites in space or on your rooftop.
What are photovoltaics (solar cells)?
In high school, David competed in this track and field event involving lots of sand in his track spikes.
What is long jump?
David's favorite solo trip occurred when he visited this famous football (soccer) stadium, located in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
What is Old Trafford?
David once brought this culinary mash-up to a Fourth of July party by battering, frying, and tossing this protein, commonly found in Indian cuisine, in orange sauce from Panda Express.
What is paneer?
David's first concert was for this band, famous for hits like Starlight and Hysteria.
What is Muse?
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for isolating this exotic everyday material; this discovery was the basis for David's PhD.
What is graphene?
This once new and online browser game led to David's first and very regrettable online handle of petguy1993.
What is Neopets?
David and Karina were on their way to visit this camera ready destination along Lake Superior when they unfortunately hit a deer and had to go to the ER instead.
What is Pictured Rocks National Park?
This type of meal is quite common at the ryokans David and Karina stayed at while walking along the Nakosendo Way, perfect for refueling after a long hike.
What is kaiseki?
David used to play this competitive game, and once was cast on Twitch in the elimination rounds of a 1300 person tournament (he lost that match).
What is Magic: the Gathering?
Many scientific tools used by David during his PhD relied on diffraction of crystalline materials, which can be considered a real-life application of this transform.
What is the Fourier Transform?
As an NFL member (no, not that NFL), David competed in this activity, known for off-the-cuff remarks.
What is Extemporaneous Speaking?
This erroneously named destination in New Zealand was called the eighth wonder of the world by Rudyard Kipling and was where David and Karina saw the Southern Lights on their honeymoon.
What is Milford Sound?
This dish, brought over by immigrants from David's father's ancestral home, is strongly associated with another country, found everywhere in their hawker stalls.
What is Hainanese chicken rice?
David's trusty secondhand hybrid bike came equipped with this safety component, more traditionally associated with newer automobiles and higher quality bikes, which made buying it a slam dunk.
What is a disc brake?
This theorem, foundational in quantum mechanics for guaranteeing certain properties for operators, is David's favorite theorem for its elegance.
What is the spectral theorem?
David bought this game for his brand new Game Boy Color, wanting to catch them all, but ended up returning it when he realized that it was actually only a themed arcade game.
What is Pokémon Pinball?
David and Karina spent 7 days sludging through some highly wet terrain on this famous hiking trail in a country well known for their long lakes.
What is the West Highland Way?
Although they weren't royalty, David and Karina tried out this this famous dessert, first baked in 1832, when they visited Vienna.
What is Sacher-Torte?
David's favorite musical, this play was ahead of the curve in depicting mental health struggles.
What is Next to Normal?
One of David's projects looked at magnetic properties of exfoliated ruthenium trichloride by using this instrument; its acronym spells out a sea creature.
What is a SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) magnetometer?