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Autobiographical Sketch - William J. Decker, PhD

(This appeared in the October, 1999 issue of Telicom, the journal of the International Society of Philosophical Enquiry)

I was born August 30, 1968 at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. John and Linda Decker, my parents, Lisa my sister, and my two half-brothers Bruce and Scott lived in Southfield, a suburb of Detroit, at the time. My father moved us to Stockbridge, Michigan a few years later in order to get away from the city. (When ISPE was founded in December, 1974 I could be found attending first grade at Emma L. Smith Elementary School in Stockbridge.) We stayed in Stockbridge until the early 80's, when the automobile industry tanked and my dad was transferred to a plant in Virginia. Life in a small town in Michigan became life in an even smaller town in Virginia. Riner, Virginia is essentially a rural voting district with a combined high school and junior high. We had a house on a dirt road on the shore of the Little River, which connected with the New River, one of the oldest rivers in existence. Home was in Montgomery County, an area dominated by the city of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. I graduated from Auburn High School in Riner in 1986, and left for Charlottesville, Virginia to attend school at the University of Virginia (UVA). Ten years later, after getting my PhD, I took a job in Florida. I lived in Melbourne, Florida and worked in a small town called Sebastian. When the division I worked for was spun off and went public in 1997, I moved to Laguna Niguel, California. That is where I am today.

My education consisted of a good, solid high school education, which surprises some when I mention that I attended a rural high school that had roughly 60 people in the entire graduating class. My performance was good enough to earn an Echol's Scholarship at the University of Virginia (UVA). This scholarship eliminates all requirements, allowing qualifying undergraduates to have free choice over their curriculum. I took advantage of this by focusing on math, physics, and astronomy. I ended up with a double major, Astronomy-Physics and Mathematics, and I graduated with Highest Distinction in Astronomy-Physics in 3 and 1/2 years. My senior thesis was entitled "Functional Representation and Simulation of Globular Cluster Main-Sequence Stars". I then transferred to the Engineering Physics department in order to study classical physics. My Masters thesis was entitled "A Block Iterative Nodal Integral Method for Fluid Dynamics Problems" and my dissertation was entitled "Numerical Studies of Bifurcations and Chaos in Natural Convection". My interest in classical physics has evolved to where I am firmly in the "Rational Mechanics" school of physics established by thought leaders like Clifford Truesdell, James Serrin, and others. I retain an even stronger interest in Natural Philosophy.

I have worked at various jobs over the last ten years. I was a math grader for the UVA math department and a stage manager for the UVA Symphonic Band. For a few years I was a student analyst at the UVA Academic Computing Center (now ITC). During graduate school I was support by a National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship, followed by a NASA Graduate Student Researcher grant. After college I took a job with XLVision, a company that incubates technologies and spins off these technologies in the form of public companies. The spin-off I was part of is ChromaVision Medical Systems, maker of the Automated Cellular Imaging System (ACIS), where I am currently the Senior Scientist and manage a group of application developers using the ACIS to develop new cell-based analytical procedures.

My hobbies have ranged over the years. I wish I played more tennis and got back into playing the drums, but maybe I will have more time next year. The same exists with stargazing. Much of my spare time is currently taken up with running and working out. I ran my first marathon in Maui last spring, and I am training to be able to compete in a local Navy Seal competition at the "GI Joe" level. Twice a year I play golf with my dad; I am still trying to break 90. I have started participating in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre map-and-pencil road rallies (often seen advertised in Games magazine). My web page also demands much of my free time. I invite all members of ISPE to visit it. Its at http://www.pobox.com/~wjdecker and there you can see a much more colorful and animated version of my life story, along with my Natural Philosophy Bookshelf page, and various other descriptions of me, my hobbies, my family, my friends, and my travels and travails. Other communications can be sent via surface mail to 31878 Del Obispo, #118-314, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. Electronic mail can be sent to me at wjdecker@pobox.com. I look forward to further communications with ISPE members.