John is a native New Mexican and joined the experimental nuclear group at NMSU in 2004 after becoming the first graduate of the Department of Physics new Engineering Physics Program.  This is his nth year as a student—at New Mexico Tech, University of Puget Sound, Emerson College, University of Massachusetts-Boston, University of Connecticut and NMSU.  He’s earned a few degrees along the way, most notably (so far) a Master of Fine Arts in poetry.
John has been able to get his name on a few papers—for undergraduate work here at NMSU on signal processing and neural networks in the engineering college, and on properties of magnets in the physics department—as well as a few more poems and short stories.  He currently works with Dr. Steve Pate on the G0 (G-zero) experiment at Jefferson Lab, measuring the contributions of strange quarks to the proton’s and neutron’s electric and magnetic form factors.  After this semester he will move to Virginia where he will become even more involved with the G0 experiment, get his name on a few more papers and hopefully a few more poems, earn a Ph.D., ride his bike some more…

After a postdoc or two and some time in the Peace Corps, John would like to become a professor—ideally in both physics and creative writing.