Gerald R. North

I was trained as a physicist (BS, 1960, U of Tenn; PhD, 1966, U of Wisconsin), taught physics at University of Missouri-St. Louis, moving to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for 8 years before coming to Texas A&M in 1986 in the Dept of Atmospheric Sciences. So now I am a climate scientist, but mostly a pedagog. http://atmo.tamu.edu/profile/GNorth

I am married to Laura and have five children and two grandchildren.

I spend all of my time with family or reading books. I read all kinds of books: classics of American, English and Russian (in translation) literature. I love Russian history from Medieval to present. I also read history, physics, math, statistics, and just about anything. I try to read such things as philosophy, especially of knowledge and science. I like the American Pragmatists and the way they think, but I think I am more of a realist along the lines of Quine (to the extent that I understand him). I am fortunate to have travelled extensively, four times to the old USSR, four times to Japan, twice to Korea and Taiwan, most of the European countries multiple times.

I am in a book club at Texas A&M called the NAR, which is about 40 years running. We read all kinds of nonfiction books. Most recently Lords of Finance and next, The Origin of Stories.