Dr. Scott E. Aaron

Career Information Summary

I have a Ph.D in astronomy, earned in 1996 from Brandeis University.  I worked at the Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie in Bonn, Germany from 1996-1998.  I worked as a support scientist for JIVE, supporting the Mark III correlator.  I summarize some of my research here.  You can get a list of my publications from the ADS site.

In September, 1998, I began working for Keane, Inc. as a software consultant for IBM.  In January 2000, I moved to Milwaukee to work at Northwestern Mutual Life, supporting the commissions system.

Personal Interests Summary

As you see above, I have become a professional programmer, though I was trained as an astrophysicist.  Beyond the work I do professionally, I am very interested in developing software in the C++ programming language.  One excercise I took on in my spare time at work is an instant messaging system I call msg.  Because others might find it useful, I have made the source code available to any who are interested.  I don't claim it's the best software in the world, but it was fun to write and to continue to develop and it is functional.  I have ported the system to Java, code which I will probably post when I get the chance. I have been learning the Java programming language.  I've written some stuff, including a Java version of msg and an applet to play Yahtzee. I have done a lot of programming in the Perl language and love it.  I try to place some of my more useful Perl scripts and modules on CPAN.  For example, I currently have a pretty nice (in my opinion) GUI for Sybase databases sitting up there.  I have also created an online review system, but haven't gotten around to putting it on CPAN yet.

I have a variety of interests outside of programming.  Paramount among these are movies, books, history, and photography.

My favorite movies include the works of Ingrid Bergman, who is my all-time favorite actress.  I also love the work of Kenneth Branagh (as director, yes even  Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which no one else seems to like) and his former wife Emma Thompson.  I like both good Hollywood (no, that's not always an oxymoron, just usually) and small budget, independant films.

I love books by Tom Clancy and Agatha Christie, but also James Bond books.

My two favorite periods of history to study are the US Civil War and Germany under National Socialism.  Don't ask me to explain why I find Hitler and his Reich interesting.  I can't really explain it, but I do.  One of the best parts of living in Germany for two years was being right where it all happened.  I lived right on the Rhein, just a few miles north of the town of Remagen, where US troops made the first crossing of the river near the end of WWII.  There was a memorial near the site of a burned out synagogue just down the street from me.  (The original site is now occupied by a Holiday Inn, which is apparantly more important, so the site was moved across the street.)  I am in no way a Nazi.  I just find that period of German history fascinating.

Since I have lived in Germany, I've written some stuff on the country, hopefully of interest for those visiting the country and those moving to the country.

Given that I can be somewhat opinionated, I have created an area for publishing movie reviews and opinion pieces.  These are my personal views, which you can take or leave.