Jared's Personal Page

Hello, My name is Jared Workman and my wife (Jen) and I, along with our three cats and our two macaws, live in Boulder, Colorado. I was born, on August 17th, 1976 in Albuquerque, New Mexico but lived in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania from 6 years old until I was 26. I hold a BA in Psychology, a BS in Physics, and a Masters in Astrophysics.

I created this site to act primarily as a personal journal and to keep old friends and family abreast of my doings. Please feel free to use any of the information contained herein however I ask permission be requested before any of my photographs are used.

I am currently working on my doctorate at the University of Colorado department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS). My first area of research was in Solar physics but I soon found the data analysis I was involved in not to be to my liking and left that research group. I now study magnetized accretion disks and the radiation associated with Gamma Ray Burst afterglows. This is a much better fit as I am now back to doing analytic calculations and computer simulations and quite enjoy the work.

Neither of my undergraduate degrees were easily obtained as I worked 40 hours a week during most of my undergraduate years (except for the last two where I only had to work 20, thank god for an adjunct faculty salary). This was of course my fault. I left ( note- had no choice here) high school at the age of 16 for any number of discipline problems and this tends to cut down on the scholarships available and the universities beating at your door. After working full time for a couple of years, getting in trouble with the law, and seeing my friends headed for prison, death, or misery I realized I needed to do something with my life. I knew an education was the way to go so started with Montgomery County Community College for a couple of years while I tried to figure out what to do with myself and then moved on to Temple University.

I had originally been planning to go to Law School (hence the Psychology degree) but as luck would have it a friend (Jim) managed to talk me out of Law School while I was exhausted during a backpacking trip. Jim convinced that I would hate being a lawyer and to go back to school and earn a Physics degree so that I could pursue Astrophysics in graduate school. I had an amateur fascination with astronomy so thought this would be perfect. This was a bit of crap shoot as I hadn't even seen algebra in five years and wasn't sure how I would do with the math and physics. As it turns out I had an aptitude for both. I also met my wife as a result of choosing to stay on and earn a second degree.

When I received my second degree I began the process of applying to graduate schools. I wanted to be away from the east coast and to live somewhere beautiful and used this as the primary factor in deciding where to apply. I was accepted everywhere I applied but fell in love with Colorado the moment I got off the plane to visit and decided to come here immediately. To be honest I hadn't even realized what a good school it was. I feel very fortunate to be here. The department is fantastic, the research interesting, and my adviser gives me enough free reign that I am actually pursuing totally independent research with a colleague which should produce enough results on its own to comprise a large part of my dissertation.

Over the course of my life I have worked in/as - fast food (easily the hardest job I've ever had), telemarketing, a veterinary technician, construction, painting, receiving bays, a machine shop in a printing company, a math and physics tutor, and finally, right before coming to graduate school, I spent two years as an adjunct faculty member of Temple University's Math Department. While I consider allot of my undergraduate BA in psychology to be a waste it did allow me to work (adjunct faculty members only needed a bachelors degree at Temple), at a much higher pay rate, fewer hours a week, during my time pursuing a scientific degree which required a real effort.

I gave up having a life for 8 years to pay for my undergraduate and to be the top student in both my disciplines but it was well worth it. I might have struggled for years but I now spend my days happily married, financially secure, climbing in the high country and pursuing interesting research. My younger years taught me the value of hard work and discipline but they also instilled an abiding intolerance for laziness, ignorance, and entitlement, which unfortunately seem to be common in people nowadays. I'm always amazed people take objective issues and truly believe their opinions change reality (think of global warming) and see this as the age of 'I can do/think/say what ever I want whether people like it or not, without any basis and I am entitled to what ever I want by dint of merely existing'. The people in the US are a classic example of narcissism gone mad.

I absolutely detested Philadelphia and am quite happy to have be away from it. Colorado may well have to many self important Californians and drivers who confuse merge signs with stop signs but at least we don't have millions of uneducated, noisy, littering, wannabe (and real) thugs cursing, littering, yelling, and starting fights every where you turn. Nor do we have a horrendously entrained union system which damages the state's economy through corruption, graft, and intimidation or a racist mayor who is constantly being investigated by the FBI. Philadelphia is, without a doubt (except for Camden, NJ), the dirtiest, rudest, and most hostile city I have ever been to and I've been to most of them.

All things considered I find Colorado to be as optimal a place to live as possible. The people are generally friendly and when they are not they are at least harmless, the views are beautiful, the climate moderate, the climbing plentiful.... The only things I miss about the east coast are the abundant vegetation, rainfall, and my old friends.

I have a variety of hobbies and interests including but not limited to: Mountain Climbing, Ice Climbing, Rock Climbing, Snow Climbing, Nature Education, Hiking, Backpacking, Photography, Motorcycles, Movies, Reading, Playing the Violin, Learning Spanish, Cats, Macaws, and Skiing. As of May 2008 Jen and I also became PADI dive certified .

I'd say my goals are to become a WI4 ice leader, a 5.9 trad leader, climb as many mountains, both locally and internationally (hopefully at least one technical peak/continent) as possible, get my PhD, learn to play the violin at the amateur professional level, learn to speak Spanish fluently, keep my wife happy, and generally enjoy life. I also hope to one day have a nice home on the water somewhere, maybe in the Seattle area (being near the ocean again would be nice and Washington has good mountains) but a nice stream somewhere in the Colorado mountains would work as well. I'd also like a Gold Wing one day. I'll never be one of the geniuses in my field or a super tough climber and I'll never be an 80 hour work week PhD selling his soul for the dollar in industry but I believe a happy medium exists in between these extremes. In the end I think the most important thing a person can do is to never stop learning new things. There is so much to the world around us and its amazing when you find out something new about it or learn a new skill.