He's been on staff at many summer programs over the years, including the Ross Program (where he was first a student), HCSSiM, and PROMYS (where he was the founding head counselor). He has co-authored a number of textbook series for K-12 published by Harcourt and Holt. He enjoys especially helping others to see the beauty of mathematical ideas and to understand why, not just how procedures and algorithms work. Combinatorics is the perfect field for him, with its rich mixture of concrete objects and high-falutin' abstractions. In his spare time, Tom is an avid folk dancer, sings in a Bulgarian folk music ensemble, and studies ancient Japanese poetry.