John's Photo Album

This was the scene at my Ph.D. Oral examination (known at other schools as a Disseration Defense; at Stanford it's a slightly different thing). From left, Professor John Hennessy, dean of Stanford's College of Engineering; My advisor, Professor Anoop Gupta; Me; Professor Bruce Wooley; acting head of Electrical Engineering; Professor Mark Horowitz (joining us for the photo, not actually on the committee); and Professor Mendel Rosenblum. Smiles all around, happily I passed.

I was part of a a group of fifteen or so crazy graduate students who entered the single most intense sport in history: that's right, Innertube Water Polo. Our team was there every sunday, taking on any opponents willing to challenge us (i.e. freshman dorms). In this shot, we're scrimmaging against each other for practice ("hats" versus "no hats"), and ex-Cal Berkeley water polo jock John Owens (we're talking about real polo, kids), is easily outdistancing my furious attempt to recover the ball. Aha! But look at the reason for his glee: the frothy water reveals that he's pushing off my tube with his feet. As it happens, John can outdistance small motorboats with merely the kick from his big toe, so I probably wouldn't have caught him anyway.

This is America, right here in front of you. Twenty five Americans meeting together to witness the final Presidential debate of the 1996 election. After the televised debate we had our own forum to discuss our own views and concerns about the election and the country. From the left (front row): Robert Bosch and fiancée Ming Tsai, Thea Henry, Allan Knies, Brent "Brently" Ridenour, and Brian Schnack. Back row: Jens Skakkebaek, Michael Grant, me, Carrie Wenninger, Lori Balough, Lauri Gibilterra (seated), Susan Helfter. Also present, not shown: John Owens, Steve Herrod, John Chapin, Ed Bugnion, Scott Devine, and Darren Bronson.

This poorly-merged two-picture panorama of Pittsburgh shows that the Steel City is no longer the smoky dusty place of old, but a beautiful metropolis. This picture was taken at one of the many observation points along Mount Washington, the high hillside adjacent to the Monongahela River. With me at the time was high school classmate, long-time friend, recent Pittsburgh repatriate and all-around babe Christina Bosley. Some reference points (left to right): Sports buffs will recognize Three Rivers Stadium, sitting at the confluescence of the Ohio (left), Allegheny (top), and Monongahela Rivers (bottom). Visible below the reflections from the stadium, right at the "point" where the three rivers meet is Point State Park, and a spectacular fountain which is not operating in this picture. The Fort Pitt Bridge is next (bottom), followed by the Hilton (orange neon sign). The tall buildings on the skyline are (continuing to the right:) Fifth Avenue Place (pointy building with the single spire surrounded by very bright lights), One PPG Place (the building with multiple lighted spires), the USX Tower (the tallest building in the city), The Mellon Building (?), and finally One Oxford Center (the white building with two towers right next to each other).

You can't see us very well, but you can be sure that everybody knew our name. From the left: Michelle Johnson, me, and Kinshuk Govil standing in front of the Bull and Finch Pub in Boston, the scenery used as the outside of Cheers! This is located just next to Boston Common and the Boston Public Gardens, two marvelously landscaped regions in the middle of one of the nation's oldest and most historic cities.

Our hero in front of the magestic lion entrance to the colossal MGM Grand Hotel. The sheer scope of this place is mind-boggling. Travel tip: Las Vegas in the summertime is hot. Very very hot.

This picture shows three generations in our family (clockwise from bottom left): John Heinlein, Jr. (my grandfather), John Heinlein III (my father), my brother Jason Heinlein, and me. What a neat picture!

Me, standing in front of Stanford's spectacular Memorial Church. Two Earthquakes (1907 and 1989) have taken their toll on this edifice. Restoration has changed to its facade and structure each time but you wouldn't know to look at it: it's positively beautiful, inside and out. If you have occasion to visit Stanford, don't miss your opportunity to view one of the most beautiful churches in the country, perhaps the world. (Of course, I'm unbiased.)

Two-time SCUBA diving partner Michael Grant and myself on the beach. This was the second of two days of diving for our basic open-water diver certification. In June, Mike and I returned to the Pacific to get our Advanced certification. On this day of diving, we encountered an eight foot long white harbor seal, which must have weighed several hundred pounds yet moved with the grace of a feather. We rather suddenly happened upon the seal, which was resting next to a large coral-encrusted pipe. When it jumped up we nearly swallowed our regulators.

Here are the culprits themselves, the Gates 354 residents (from left) Robert Bosch, Steve Herrod, and me.

Here's my brother Jason and I on the beach, ready to go body boarding in the Pacific. We took a moment out to snap this picture, remniscent of SNL's Sprockets, before diving in. Our friend Mhairi Jones snapped the picture, which is too bad because she's much cuter than we are.

I'm standing atop L'Arc de Triomphe, with La Tour Eiffel in the background. This picture was taken by Stanford Ph.D. student and all around cool guy Steve Woo, who I happened to run into at Versailles. The interesting thing about this occasion was that just later on they held the daily rekindling of the flame at the tomb of the French unknown soldier. Much to our surprise, however, the Paris chapter of the American Legion marched in the procession, and the military band, after playing La Marseillaise, played the Star Spangled Banner. We were agast, and then we later realized it was the Fourth of July. We were in Paris, after all, we had forgotten altogether about Independence day. So we got to celebrate the holiday, and hear our national anthem, all on the Champs Elysées!

This is one of the chores of being a graduate student...lugging around your advisor's kid. No, seriously, I volunteered to carry my advisor's 2 year old son Rahul for part of our recent group hike at Castle Rock. Isn't he cute!! (Rahul's pretty cute too)

This is most, but not all of the FLASH crew (and SO's) on the Second Annual Ski trip. We stayed at Star Harbor on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, just outside Tahoe City. From the left, approximately: Joel Baxter, Me, Dave Heine (friend of FLASH), Dave Nakahira, Sula (Dave Heine's SO), Steve Herrod, Dave Ofelt, Diane Baylor (Jeff's wife), Jules Bergman, Jeff Kuskin, Bari Anhalt (Andrew's SO), and Andrew Erlichson.

This is four of us at dinner for my birthday in 1993 (I was 23). From the left, Andy Watson, Steve Herrod, me, and my roommate and long time pal, Bob Ridenour. Ming's: Just off 101 in Palo Alto, (415-856-7700). Excellent.

Me, leaning against a fermentation tank at the Red Hook Ale Brewery in Seattle. This is one of the few flattering pictures of me, IMHO, and I took it in a brewery. Go figure. Did I mention I'm a homebrewer? (It's not as crazy as it sounds...you can make good beer that way)

This is our hero at the first tee at the world-famous Pebble Beach course. You can almost see the logo on the golf cart. I shot 85. (Yeah, right!)

This is standing at the highest point on Half Dome, the well-photographed rock at Yosemite National Park. This is after a 9 mile hike (half of the 18 mile round trip), which included 1 MILE vertical rise to get there. In true Ansel Adams fashion, I selected black and white for this one.