Profile: timbalionguy

Your personal background.
My name is Tim Stoffel, but for reasons I'll mention further down, my friends call me 'Timba'. I am from Reno, Nevada in the US. I have always been interested in high energy physics and lately, have been interested in general relativity. I have been around other 'big science' physics projects, like the Omega inertial confinement fusion reactor in Rochester, NY. Here in Reno, I have the Zebra Z-pinch machine practically in my back yard. So, participation in in the LIGO project only came as a natural. I am a broadcast engineer by career, with a specialty in high power RF systems. I have been involved with a reaearch project validating the propagation predictions of the new advanced television system used here in the US. In addition to RF work, I also do studio systems, both analog and digital. My hobbies include amateur radio, astronomy, and collecting antique broadcast gear. My videotape machine collection is one of the largest in the US. My main hobby though, is studying African lions (hence the nickname). I have been to Africa to observe wild lions. I have 'armchair researched' the Tsavo maneater story. Most importantly, I now help care for four lions, two tigers and a liger (lion-tiger hybrid) who just happen to be my next-door neighbors. Last but not least, I am a Linux enthusiast, and have been running it on the desktop long before most people had ever heard about it.
Your opinions about Einstein@Home
I run Einstein@Home because it gives me a chance to participate in a 'big science' project that I have an active interest in. I am excited about the project because they actually built these behemoths-- all three of them. I am sincerely hoping that the project will indeed detect gravity waves, and will do so on a regular basis. In any case, we should learn some very interesting things about spacetime from these experiments, and their operation will help us to someday develop simpler. smaller gravity wave detectors. I'm glad to see that we can now monitor what's going on with the detectors in almost real time, and am checking back frequently to see if anything new has popped up. As far as suggestions go, I have no real suggestions to make at this time, but 'keep up the good work'!
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant NSF-0200852 and by the Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the investigators and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or the MPG.

Copyright © 2009 Bruce Allen for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration