Jim Mahoney - Computer Science
Jim has been playing with computers for a long time.
As a teenager in the 1970s he taught his calculator to play minesweeper. As a radio astronomer in the 1980s, he programmed telescopes and modeled galaxies. And in the 1990s, watching the growth of the Internet, he set up the college’s first Web site.
As a physicist, Jim has always worked with computers as an important tool, both for various kinds of data analysis and for theoretical work. Over the years, however, his fascination with computers and with programming grew into the place where physics and computer science collide – and where computer science overlaps with other disciplines. In 2002, after teaching physics for 14 years at Marlboro, he found himself on a committee in search of a new computer science professor. But "during the interviews, I kept thinking, ‘I know a lot more about computers than this guy,’" says Jim, "and the idea of applying for the position myself began to grow on me."
These days Jim tries to connect computer science to various disciplines across the curriculum, including computer music, dance technology, linguistics, digital image and video projects, bioformatics, geographical information systems, and scientific data analysis and modeling. Most of his own research has centered on the Internet, including the use of Web applications in education.
B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1987; Physics Staff, MIT Environmental Study Group, 1986 - 1988; NASA Summer Faculty Fellow, 1991 - 1992; Marlboro Graduate Center faculty, 2001 - ; Internet consultant, 2004 – ; Marlboro College, 1988 –