Well, I can't let Mandy be the only one introducing herself here. I need to keep up! Please enjoy this short bio I wrote about myself.
-J
Skipping all the dinosaurs and getting to the good part of the story, Josh grew up in a little suburb of Philadelphia called Newtown Square, and had a childhood filled with music, sci-fi, and probably some other things. Some highlights from high school include being president of the Astronomical Society, and, playing the role of Mr. T, punching out his English teacher on stage for talking about Jar Jar Binks. And music. Josh has played the tuba since he was in sixth grade, and he finds it to be a delightful hobby to this day.
Josh studied physics at Penn State University, where he spent some time in a lab working on a Bose-Einstein condensation experiment. But, he spent most of his time doing other things, like playing Sousaphone in the marching band, eating ice cream outside in shorts in the snow, and being an active member (and eventually president) of the Penn State Monty Python Society.
After graduating, Josh immediately moved to Duke University to study physics. There he (after some wavering) decided to study neutrinos, with the Super-Kamiokande and T2K experiments. This involved a lot of travel back and forth to Japan, but working in a successful international collaboration was quite rewarding, in more ways than one. Neutrinos, for those of you wondering, are very light, very weakly interacting particles which are so very difficult to detect, but which make up for their shyness by being plentiful and very interesting. Read up, there will be a quiz later (not really). Josh got his PhD with a dissertation on the indications of neutrinos changing from one type to another (oscillating) seen with the T2K experiment.
Josh then started a postdoctoral research position with Indiana University, working for the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) experiments. Naturally, this meant he spent a year and a half at Stanford before moving to Bloomington, IN, where he lives now. He's still studying neutrinos, just in different ways than before. Josh is presently making an effort to keep this from turning into a bizarre third-person CV.
In his spare time, Josh enjoys board games, video games, and various musical endeavors, though mostly that involves tuba playing these days. Picard was definitely the best of the captains, though the EMH was his favorite doctor. Geordi LaForge was probably one of Josh's heroes growing up, and quite the inspiration, even if the fact that his visor can see neutrinos now really bothers Josh. Josh's favorite food, and the one he first learned to make, is French toast. Josh is actually rather bad at picking favorites among movies and the like. Josh will happily eat the cheese that Mandy won't eat, as long as she eats the tomatoes so he doesn't have to.