Editing Nick Vlad (section)

==Please tell us about yourself==

I grew up in Communist Romania, which for all practical purposes it was a timewarp into the 1950's. The good things to come out of this was a decent mathematical education, and wisdom about human nature and society, both of which would come in handy later.

I then made it through ten years of economical depression in 1990's Romania, then made it to Stanford heaven. Like the dog that finally caught the car, I didn't know what to do with it. I rejoiced the atmosphere of intellectual honesty, experimentation, and the contact with my colleagues and teachers, especially Jon Claerbout. I did not realize how important the latter was until years after. Jon pioneered several crucial concepts, among which "hard" reproducibility (i.e. providing _everything_ that is needed to actually reproduce a scientific result, and testing it). I remember him in the early 2000s experimenting with online teaching methods that only started reaching mainstream 15 years later. I also remember him saying "If it's not hard, then you're not learning". I then moved on to experience for five years life in Trondheim, Norway, eight hours drive from the Arctic circle, which was also amazing in its own way.

In 2010 I had the pleasure of enjoying the hospitality of the Geophysics Department at Colorado School of Mines. Then just like insects turn from larva into adult in their lifecycle, it was time to go through five years in the service industry in Houston. Towards the end of this period I even learned to sit still in one place and work for the whole day like an adult, and to not interrupt people when they're speaking. Since 2016 I have been working in a totally different environment, applying my programming skills to other fun things such as the ionosphere and the magnetosphere.