Who am I?

TL;DR

I like to think of myself as some combination of the following:

• Programmer
• Scientist (Physicist)
• Girl-Dad
• Manager
• Entrepreneur

Longer Answer

I have 30+ years of experience as a programmer. I discovered PDP-11 and BASIC in high school, and it wasn’t long before I was hand-writing 6502 assembler code to simulate Millikan’s experiment on an Apple II+ computer. That means I’ve been around programming for a long time, and I like to think I know a few things when it comes to the art of programming. (Having said that, while I understand most programming languages, I am hardly an expert in any these days.)

My first interest, though, was in physics. You might have guessed that from that reference to Millikan’s experiment. I have a PhD in theoretical particle physics, having specialized in grand unification theories. (SO(10) supergravity flavor, if you’re curious.) Basically, I am one of the many physicists enamored with the goal to extend the so called ‘standard model’ in a way that makes it ‘more correct’ - ideally in an elegant way!

But as it turned out, our ability to peer into the depth of nature where we can actually test the models beyond the standard model seemed decades away back then. (Even today, after the LHC, I feel this continues to be the case.) And I didn’t have the patience to wait for years. So, shortly after my PhD and a brief stint as a professor, I left physics.

Since that time, I have been working as a software engineer, then as a manager, and then as an entrepreneur. I would say my most valuable and honed skillsets are in developing the early stages of a technology start-up. I am the curious (nosy) type, and so I’ve learned a lot of different things over the years. (And I’ve tried a lot of things… I know a lot of things not to do!)

And if you’re curious about my background: I was born in Kyoto, Japan, grew up in Boston suburbia (yes, I root for the Red Sox), got my PhD at Texas A&M, and now live in NJ. I’m married to a wonderful Carioca and we have two daughters. For more personal stuff, you can take a look at here and here.

My Current Interests/Projects

I run a services company called Joylogics and a (related) product company called CloudKeep.

I consult as fractional-CTO/CIO (advisory) and I sometimes take on projects with focus on:

• DevOps - AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, CircleCI
• DevCostOps - Cost Optimization in AWS
• Remote (External) Software Development - typically SaaS
• Data Engineering

If you’re interested in my working with you on a project, please reach out via LinkedIn