Here's my bit:

Since leaving my daily school lunch of a Hershey bar, sour cream and onion potato chips, and an RC behind at HRA, I have basically spent the time working and going to school. I graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1987 with a degree in Physics.  

I, then, spent a few years working for a NASA Langley contractor as a computer programmer.  At the same time I started taking classes at Old Dominion University thinking I wanted to study aerospace engineering.  I got over that quickly after I landed my dream job at CEBAF (Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility) a.k.a. Jefferson Lab. I work on the control system software for the accelerator, and that means I work with physicists, engineers, and technicians developing software that allows them to monitor and control the accelerator remotely using a system of distributed single board computers talking to various types of hardware.  Sounds kind of nerdy? It is, but I like it so much that I pursued a master's degree in electrical engineering at ODU which I completed in 2001.  Surprisingly enough, despite working with computers since I graduated from college, I don't know diddley about PCs!

I met my husband, Geoffrey, at Jefferson Lab.  We have two kids, Athena who is almost four years old, and Konrad who just turned one.  Geoff and I enjoy traveling to see ancient Greek and Roman ruins, but that's on hold for a  while until the kids get a little older.

Memories:
*  going to concerts to see the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Police, Joe Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, The Clash, A Flock of Seagulls, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, The Go-Go's, ... 
*  Anne Hutchinson ('82) declaring "Spring starts when the Dead come to Hampton"
*  getting lost in the NYC subway with Lisa B.
*  all those quizzes (Mr. Cox's quizzes in tenth grade English, Mr. Gillespie's Newsweek quizzes in Government senior year, Mr. Holt's American History quizzes in ninth grade, and those weekly vocabulary quizzes from those workbooks)
*  laughing with Jeannie about everything
*  watching movies and MTV at Jeannie's house
*  HRA opening 2 hours late after a snow when all the other area schools were closed
*  eating lunch outside on the curb when the weather was nice
*  weekly doughnuts sales for Keyettes 

-Alicia

hofler@jlab.org

Return to home page