Born and raised in northern CA (Bay Area / Gold Country). PhD in School of Hard Knocks, but currently retired.

US Navy enlisted for 11.5 years, mainly in the nuclear submarine program as a reactor operator aboard USS Scamp, USS Daniel Boone and USS Seahorse (plankowner). Also did a 'Nam tour aboard the USS Kitty Hawk and finished my Navy time doing crypto and intell communications work at Pearl Harbor.

30 years in the semiconductor industry working mostly as a process engineer (figuring out and optimizing ways to best make silicon integrated circuits).

My specialty was ion implantation: using atomic mass separation and high voltage acceleration to implant specific materials into the silicon chips to form transistors and other componenets at microscopic scales. Thus my screen name.

I'm a licensed Private Pilot (got my ticket at age 55), enjoy golf immensely (but am a high handicapper, alas) and like to stay well read - both fiction and nonfiction.

I was long-time lurker on FR and finally registered because every once in while I spot confusion or 'misinformed' technical information that I could help to clear up if I only could post.