Úlfar's Background

My name is fairly uncommon, hard to pronounce, and sports a not-so-hidden meaning. I'm from the somewhat unique north-Atlantic island Iceland. There, I grew up in the town of Hafnarfjörður, but later moved to Reykjavík. Since my life seems to be centered around school, below I'm listing those I've attended, and worked at, so far.

Lækjarskóli

Here I attended grade school and ``junior high'', learning such things as arithmetic and the anxieties of adolescence. The school is nicely located in central Hafnarfjörður, by the pond. I graduated with a gagnfræðapróf in 1987, and the summer of 1989 worked there in a group of construction workers repairing the building.

Verzlunarskóli Íslands

My secondary school, The Commercial College of Iceland, famous for its bookkeeping and typing courses, and as being the preferred venue for the education of the sons and daughters of Iceland's nouveau riche. Here I learned the futility of economics and the joys of mathematics. I graduated with a stúdentspróf in 1991, returned in 1992 and for the next two years attempted to teach two classes some math.

Háskóli Íslands

The University of Iceland! Here I studied math for a year and a half, before realizing the foolishness of my ways. I graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science from the Computer Science Department. Among my teachers there were Oddur Benediktsson, Hjálmtýr Hafsteinsson, Snorri Agnarsson, and Jóhann P Malmquist, for whom I TA'd my last semester.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave! For two years I was in the Ph.D. program at RPI's Department of Computer Science, TAing a course every semester. My main advisors/mentors there were Erich Kaltofen, Mukkai Krishnamoorthy and David Musser. Finally, in 1996, I took my own advice and decided I had had enough of Troy, NY. I managed to pick up a Master of Science along the way, however, and my time there was somewhat productive.

Cornell University

Wonderous, scenic Ithaca, NY! I am now enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the Department of Computer Science, and only needed to TA my first semester! I'm probably doing something currently, and perhaps, one day, I may become a Doctor of Philosophy.

Digital's Systems Research Center

I spent the summer of 1998 at DEC SRC in Palo Alto, California, working in the DCPI group. As I learnt more that summer than many a semester I've spent at a university, I'm including SRC in this list.