a) You've told us that you had to start dancing or your girlfriend was threatening to dance with someone else, and that you co-founded the ballroom Club at Columbia University.  How involved did you get with the dancing from the beginning (attending classes, teaching, competing, etc.) and in what realms?   

At Columbia I spent about 3-5 hours per week taking lessons and practicing for competition, another couple hours organizing the social classes for the club, and I went to two competitions per semester.  In graduate school at Harvard, I spent 10 hours a week on lessons and practice for competition, 2 hours per week teaching the younger competitors, and many hours socializing with team members.

I have always felt more comfortable with standard than latin, so although I like both styles socially I would only consider competing in standard.  I first started learning American style ballroom, but after a year I switched to international style.

c) Are there other ways that music plays a part in your life other than through ballroom dance?  If so, which?  

I've been taking piano lessons with Kelly Gross for the last few months, and that has been a lot of fun.  I don't take advantage of it as much as I should, but I enjoy Charlottesville's diverse music scene.

I have one cousin who is a professional jazz musician and an aunt that was a professional singer.  When they were still children, I had one cousin that competed in figure skating and one that competed in gymnastics.

e) What kind of work do you do, and how did you get into it?
I'm an astronomer at National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  I have been interested in astronomy since high school, and I went to college as an astrophysics major and then got a Ph.D. in astronomy to pursue this career.  I study the formation of stars in our own galaxy and help run telescopes in Chile.