All my life I've been "Chip," although my driver's license says "Raymond." Before you ask, nobody claims to know where this started and I gave up years ago trying to patiently explain. Please note before being really proud of yourself: "Chip off the old Brock" is not new, it's not funny anymore, and all of you think you were the first to invent it...
I have been a professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department since 1982. Prior to that I was a post doc at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, graduate student at Carnegie-Mellon University, and engineer in private industry.
My bachelor's degree is in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University. I switched fields after a period in private industry and received an MS in Physics and the Philosophy of Science at Northern Illinois University, and then received my Ph.D. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in Theoretical and Experimental Elementary Particle Physics.
Like many scientists, my inspiration came from a dedicated high school science teacher. Mine was Mr Hauswald at Sycamore High School. He let me help in his class preparation and inspired me to read outside of class about quantum mechanics. I had him three years for all of my high school physical science courses and I dedicated my PhD thesis to him.
Born: August 2, 1950 (Oak Park, IL)
Married: Janet Peterkin (45 years), 2 children (Terry and Kimberly)
Citizenship: U.S.