I was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. My father was a physicist at "the plant," and my mother was a teacher. 

Growing up in Oak Ridge was idyllic, and I received a great education in the Oak Ridge Public School System. I went to Harvard College, where I studied history, and I returned home for law school at UT.   After law school, I worked for Hon. Boyce F. Martin, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and then moved to Nashville to practice law.

In Nashville, I met and married my wife of 25 years, MaryEllen Sullivan, who was originally from New York. We have three daughters, Kathryn, Shannon, and Sara.  

I have had a wonderful, 30-year career as an attorney, mainly as an appellate attorney in federal court.  

In 2016, I co-founded a medical-device startup, Virtuoso Surgical, Inc. We are developing a patented surgical tool that will revolutionize endoscopic surgery. You can find out more about the company at www.virtuososurgical.net.

In 2020, I published a scientific article in the Journal of Space Exploration. The article describes a technology -- matter/anti-matter annihilation -- that I believe will allow humans to travel to the outer planets and nearby stars. I expanded the article into a book, Humanity's Greatest Leap, that was written for a general audience. I have presented this science to national and international engineering and physics audiences, and it is exciting to see people start to grasp the very real possibility of travel to nearby stars.