I've been at Duke since 1977, rising through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. Before that I was on the junior faculty in Physics at Princeton. I was educated at Cambridge University (Cavendish Lab -- both undergraduate and graduate) in England.
I'm British by birth (1949), but I've lived in the United States since 1973, and have been a permanent resident ("green card") since 1978. My brother, my sister, and my mother are all in south England.
I have a daughter who was born in Princeton (1975), but not living with me except visits. Ursula is now in Chicago with her husband.
I was married to Arianne from 1985 until I divorced her in 1997.
I had a stroke in January 1999 (just before 50). My speech and writing are impaired (aphasia), but reading, thinking, and my body are fine.
For my research, I have wide-ranging interests. I'm generally labelled as a condensed matter theorist or a statistical mechanical theorist or a complex systems person. Over my research career I've contributed to theories of neutron stars, classical liquids, spin glasses, glasses, broken ergodicity, percolation, neural networks, algorithms, psychology, economics, and paleontology.
I like teaching. I have taught Mathematical Methods, Solid State, Statistical Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Neural Networks, Complexity, Physics for Poets, Einstein, Nature of Science, and introductory-level courses.
Some of my current interests are walking/hiking, art, music, wild birds, dance (participatory and performance), yoga, travel, film, and feminism. I like ideas, people, and things, and I like to talk with other people, but I'm not much interested about sports, astrology, a church, and cars.
I have a small house with a cat.
I am happy.
Richard.