About Joe Meyer

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I got born in 1962 in Chicago. I didn't know it at that time and I came out a white male.

As a boy I loved only sports and could name the starting lineup for the Cubs. It was a quarter for the el, a dollar for the bleachers, and sunburn at no extra cost.

In school I liked math and science a lot better than spelling and reading. Math is something you can be sure of while spelling seemed like an arbitrary definition.

I studied physics at DePaul University and played Division 1 soccer. I did well in Physics and Math. I wasn't great at soccer and it was still a thrill to play against Notre Dame on their home field.

The summer of my junior year (1983) I received a summer fellowship for research at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. I ended up staying for a year and worked on lithium and other experimental batteries. Sometimes I got to explode them on hotplates, carefully noting the time and temperature.

I went to Brown University in Providence, RI from 1984-1990. I received a Masters and a PhD in Physics. I played rugby and got a try against Yale at home. I was good at physics and, more importantly, thinkers like Aurelius, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Camus, and Popper started to change my mind: maybe there was more to life than sports and science.

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My first Post-Doc was at Penn State University where I built a machine to see atoms and was setter for the club volleyball team. I got married in little chapel in State College, PA and we have been together for 33 years.

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My second Post-Doc was a Humboldt Fellowship for research in Ulm, Germany. I saw a lot of different atoms and published dozens of paper. I was invited to give scientific lectures in castles all over Europe. I even tried to speak French, once. In Germany our first child was born and the German government started sending us a check every month for 'child money.'

As a young man I thought all our problems had a technical solution. Oh we have pollution? Let me move some atoms around and build a better catalytic converter! Oh we need clean energy? Let me research more efficient solar panels! After unplugging from the research world and raising two kids, I now see our problems as social and political in nature. I think Technology is neutral and that we need to learn how to get along.

To continue with my work history, I was table tennis instructor at Reed College where gym class is mandatory, and I have to pass them if they only miss two classes. I wrote a database in the Python programming language and made thousands as a web entrepreneur. My last job was as a bus driver for Van Buren County, MI. It was a free bus that picked people up and took them shopping, to a restaurant, or where ever they needed to go. The clients were always happy to see me. That part of the job was very good for my brain. To tell the truth though, I never was completely comfortable behind the wheel; the bus was big and there were dozens of mirrors to check. I lasted a year driving the free county bus and am starting to sleep better.

I will be your Representative with both the correct analysis of a PhD Physicist and the empathy that comes with raising kids in a community of friends. My heart says, 'every child is our child' and my brain says, 'show me the numbers.'

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