Meet: Ken Buress

What I do (asked in 1996)
I am an observing assistant on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) at NASA's Ames Research Center. This job is akin to the "night assistant" positions typically found at ground-based observatories. My responsibilities include assisting the visiting astronomers in target field acquisition, set-up of telescope on the target source, precision pointing within the target field, and--in an incidental way--helping the astronomer team and their operation to interface smoothly with the facility team and operation.

My education
I earned a BA degree in physics with an astronomy minor at Sonoma State University in 1985. My usually unclear aim was to work in the field of astronomy, but I was urged by advisors to major in physics, as they told me that modern astronomers are mostly physicists/ programmers/electrical engineers. My observing assistant position on the KAO is my first full-time job, officially. However, I spent two years in the Peace Corps as a high school math/science teacher in Cameroon, West Africa--and this was in truth a full-time job. I call it the "toughest full-time working vacation I've ever had."

My motivation
Three things caused me to apply for and then accept this job. First, it was time to either get a job or apply to graduate school, and the whim of my heart was to do the former. Second, this job is in my desired field. And third, this job provides the opportunity to travel, which is something I have always loved doing. So briefly, it was fortune, fame, and the jet-set life that attracted me here...

My goals
My biggest goal this year is to see my first child into this world, sometime around the end of July. My second goal this year is to finally send my first book off to a publishing company, in hopes of fame and glory.

Personal tidbits
My hobbies include hiking, camping, adventuring, ecology, cave-exploring, writing (mostly science fiction and fantasy). Up close and personal, I am trying to develop a more relaxed manner of relating to the world in general--call it a personal philosophy, but I hope to take it more seriously than that.