User:Mikhail Klassen

Personal This user is male. This user comes from Canada. This user is an escaped genetic experiment. This user uses Wikipedia as a primary point of reference. This user maintains a blog at Section 21.

Languages de Dieser Benutzer spricht Deutsch als Muttersprache. en-5 This user is able to contribute with a professional level of English. fr-2 Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français. es-1 Este usuario puede contribuir con un nivel básico de español. Mix This user has been influenced by too many dialects of English to use one orthography, vocabulary and grammar consistently. Grek-5 Ω This user has full understanding of the Greek alphabet. M-2 This user is an intermediate Mathematica programmer. MATLAB-3 This user is an advanced MATLAB programmer. Fortran-2 This user is an intermediate Fortran programmer. JAVA-1 This user is a beginner JAVA programmer. bash-2 This user is an intermediate Bash programmer. HTML-3 This user is an advanced HTML user.

Lifestyle This user uses an AMD processor This user prefers Mozilla Firefox. This user eats cheese. This user eats sushi. Java-4 This user is an expert coffee drinker. MN-2 This user is an expert minesweeper. eπi+1=0 This user is a mathie. This user enjoys classical music. This user is a bibliophile This user enjoys photography. This user is interested in astronomy. This user has a keen interest in physics. This user is interested in Celestial mechanics and Astronautics This user is a certified scuba diver. This user sleeps, but not for predictable amounts of time. This user had a flux capacitor seized by the FBI. This user begrudgingly observes Daylight Saving Time.

I have been contributing to Wikipedia since March 2005.

About me

Mikhail Klassen ( /ˈmiː.kaɪl ˈklɑːsən/). I am a graduate student in astrophysics, studying star formation. My undergraduate studies in applied physics were completed at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science with a research emphasis in magnetically-confined plasmas for nuclear fusion. My current research involves doing numerical simulation of star formation, understanding how different physical mechanisms affect the star formation process and the types of stars that result. A major goal is understanding the physical underpinnings of the the initial mass function. Simulations are carried out on the supercomputers of the SHARCNET consortium.

I am also very interested in how scientific knowledge affects other fields of study and affects culture. Many important questions exist at the intersections of science and philosophy, science and religion, and science and art. Science has the possibility to enrich the arts and humanities, to inform public policy, and stimulate religious debate. Similarly, the implications of scientific discovery are understood from the perspective of a philosophy of science, and scientific work is motivated, funded, and engaged in by humans within a culture and with religious beliefs. The discourse existing at these intersections, therefore, affects both how science is done and how it is received.

Interests and hobbies

My other interests include

• Theology and Philosophy of religion
• Philosophy of science
• History
• English and Russian literature
• Music
• Computer science

Some hobbies:

• Photography
• SCUBA diving
• Web design

Buckyball Project

Contributions

• Reaction quotient
• Stern-Gerlach Experiment - Theory and basic description of the experiment
• Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science - The engineering school at Columbia University. I edited and expanded various sections, making also a few corrections to the article.
• Columbia University Physics Department
• Nevis Laboratories - A lab operated by Columbia University in Irvington, NY
• St. Paul's Chapel (Columbia University)
• Marianopolis College - Rewrote parts and added sections and photos
• Daniel Kleppner - Quick blurb about the physicist and MIT professor. He co-authored the mechanics textbook that gave me a strong roughing-up during my freshman year in college.
• Townsend avalanche - A cascade reaction of electrons in an electric field triggered by ionizing radiation.
• Minor contributions not worthy of note. See complete list.