Dr. John K. Cannizzo grew up in Deming, NM. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a double major in astrophysics and mathematics (B.S., 1979). He pursued graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin in theoretical astrophysics (M.A., 1981; Ph.D., 1984). He was a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. John is currently a research professor through the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, working at the Goddard Space Flight Center on various projects in computational astrophysics.