Rich's Page

Me, waking up in the morning.

Boring Stuff:

I was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (about an hour west of Toronto) under the sign of Aquarius (barely) and in the Year of the Rooster (barely). I attended Frontenac Public School and Lord Elgin High School in Burlington, Ontario, and went to McMaster University in Hamilton from there, graduating in 1992 with an Honours B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics. Trivia: the Computer Science department at McMaster no longer exists: it was replaced by the Department of Computing and Software, in the Faculty of Engineering, not long after I graduated. From McMaster, I moved on to the University of Toronto. Somehow, I managed to acquire an M.Sc (1994) and a doctorate (1997) in Computer Science. I joined York University in Toronto in June of 1997, as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science. I spent an enjoyable four years there, and came to York, UK in 2001 as a Lecturer. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007, and was awarded a Personal Chair (a Professorship) in January 2009. In May 2015 I became Deputy Head of Department and started receiving far too much email.

Less Boring Stuff:

This jumping back-and-forth between Canada and Britain is something of a Paige tradition. Don't ask why; we don't quite know.

I hold dual Canadian and British citizenship; my parents and both sets of grandparents were born in England or her colonies. My background is both English and Scottish, and there is a branch of the family from Austria as well. I have relatives all over the globe, including the UK, Canada, the US, Australia, and South Africa. I apparently could have some claim to Austrian citizenship as well, since my wife is Austrian. Citizenships - just like hockey cards, collect 'em all.

I do have a Canadian accent. I say 'eh'. I occasionally say 'aboot'. I like ice hockey, and do appreciate snow from time to time.

I come from a family of academic nutballs: my father Chris has a Ph.D in Chemistry from McMaster (1990), and was an adjunct professor at McMaster up until 2005 when he retired. He then did an MA in History at Saskatchewan, and is now writing a book on the history of chemical weapons usage in the Canadian military.

My brother, Matthew, received his Ph.D in Chemistry from U of T (2000), spent two years at Stanford doing a postdoc, and is now a professor of Chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. My uncle John in Maine did some work on his Ph.D in education; my uncle Roger in Edinburgh has numerous degrees as well, and has published several books on chess. My wife Angelika is currently working on her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Vienna.