home

Hi, I'm currently a third year graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, and hoping to get my Ph.D. in Astronomy some time before the sun stops burning hydrogen. I did my undergrad at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) double majoring in Physics and Astrophysics, and I'm originally from sunny San Diego, so I'm not yet used to this whole ice age phenomenon here on the east coast. As it is, despite the bone-chilling temperatures, I'm excited to be here at Harvard and in Boston, and I've been diving head first into some astrophysics research in cosmology with Professor Ramesh Narayan and Dr. Joshua Bloom in the Astronomy Department. My work will be supported in part by the NSF through a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. In my day job here, I do research on cosmology and ridiculous astronomical explosions called gamma ray bursts. I also have a keen interest in the interface between astrophysics and the history and philosophy of science, so if anyone feels like chatting about parallel universes, time travel, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, I'm your man. My long term aspirations, in decreasing order of probability, fall somewhere along the lines of teaching astronomy, writing science fiction and screenplays, and going into space as a civilian scientist. On Earth, in my spare time, I've recently taken over as the Resident Advisor (RA) on the Fourth Floor of Child Hall (Child Sky), I've been the Social Coordinator/Web Designer for the Graduate Dormitory Council (GDC), a Teaching Fellow (TF) for Science A-35 with Professor Bob Kirshner, an occasional ultimate frisbee player for Dudley House, and I am currently the editor in chief of a newly formed Graduate Student Humor Magazine, the Harvard Satyrical Press (HSP -- that's quite a few acronyms that I only used once). Anyway, look for us on the web (www.harvardsp.com), or in print around campus. Shameless plugs aside, that's my story. Cheers....Sincerely, Andrew Friedman, 12/3/04 (Here's an archive of recent Updates to the story.)