He received his B.S. in mathematics from Michigan Technological University and his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is fortunate to be a student of Professor Shreeram S. Abhyankar, who showed him that high school algebra (like the Newton Polygon) still has an important place in mathematics. These ideas about Newton’s methods occurred while Chris was decompressing from a six-year term as department chairperson and trying to reacquaint himself with mathematics.