About Me

I'm an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. From 1997 to 1999 I held a visiting postdoctoral position at Texas A&M University. In 1997 I earned my PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles and my BSc degree in 1991 from the University of New South Wales.

For those of you who haven't met me (or those of you who have heard the way I speak and can't quite place me), I was born in New Zealand, and grew up in Sydney, Australia. I've lived in the US for over 10 years now, and I also lived in England for a year when I was a child. I'm a citizen of both Australia and New Zealand, and a US permanent resident.

I'm married to Kimberly Chapman who is the most wonderful woman in the world, as well as a journalist, writer and activist. Her first novel, Sorrows of Adoration was published in 2003, and she recently finished her second novel. Some more of her work can be found on her web site, and also at Network World Canada. She has worked for Citizen Alert, an environmental advocacy group here in Nevada, as webmistress and database administrator and is also the proprietor of a newbie-friendly online pub in the form of a Usenet newsgroup: KaCee's Place, or alt.pub.kacees.

Our first child, Peo, was born in October 2005. She is, of course, the cutest, most beautiful baby in the world. And smarter than all the other babies, too. Of course, I'm a bit biased.

Here are some obligatory baby pictures:

About Names

Corran is a name of Scottish origin, and is quite unusual, particularly with that spelling. Never the less, there are a few other Corrans out there. As far as I know, the name originates from the town of Corran in Scotland, but anyone with further information is most welcome to get in touch with me.

Peo (pronounced "PAY-oh") is a name from Botswana meaning "little seed." The name originates with Kimberly's friend and college roommate.

Hobbies

Recently my wife and I purchased a digital camera (a Nikon Coolpix 8700) and we have been able to get some amazing pictures with it. Below are low-resolution versions (for server space reasons) of a few of the better ones.

False Dawn Over Red Rock

This photo was taken just after sunset at Red Rock Canyon using a 1 minute timed exposure. The light on the clouds is all reflected light from Las Vegas.

Civic By Vegas-light

This photo was taken around midnight on a clear, but bitterly cold, night at Red Rock Canyon with a 3 minute timed exposure. The car in the foreground is our Civic, the beam of light in the background is from the Luxor casino.

Grass in the Wind

A stalk of grass at Red Rock Canyon blowing in the wind, captured with a flash and macro setting.

This photograph won an Honourable Mention in the 2005 Red Rock Photography Contest.

Abstracts Around the House

These are some semi-abstract photographs taken in and around our house and backyard.

Flowers in Red Rock Canyon

The winter and spring of 2004/2005 have been unusually wet, and as a result flowers have been blooming all over Red Rock Canyon. Most of these photos were taken by getting as close as possible to the flower in question and using the camera's macro function.