My life
So you came here to learn more about me?
I do not know why, but if you want to waste your time - well, here you are!I was born in the very early 70s in a small german town, called Bremerhaven. This town at the river Weser has once been famous for its great shipyars and many people started a new life by leaving Germany for the so called New World from Bremerhaven's pier "Columbus-Kaje" on ships like the SEVEN SEAS or UNITED STATES.
There by the shores of the North Sea I grew up, visited school and came in first contact with electronics and science. After finishing school I joined the German Navy for two years. My service time started in a naval academy in Bremerhaven. Afterwards I was stationed on a island in the Baltic Sea, Fehmarn. From the harbour of Flensburg I had some tours on board of navy ships through the Baltic Sea. During my time in the navy I first joined a maritime choir, called "Blaue Jungs". We had a lot of fun on our tours mostly in Germany and also to Chicago and European cities.
After my time in the navy, I moved to the city of Kiel in early autumn 1991. Here I started my studies in physics at the University of Kiel. Through the landscape of Schleswig-Holstein I often made bicycle tours in summer. In 1996 I finished my studies, writing a master thesis on X-ray diffraction on burried metallic layers of cobalt disilicide in silicon and on magnetic multilayers as used in magento-resistive (MR) devices.
In summer 1996 I visited the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm during a holiday trip to Sweden. By surfing the worldwide web I got in contact to the division of Solidstate Electronics, where I'm planning to start a graduate study in summer 1997 on defects and impurities in silicon carbide and silicon.My hobbies
There are various things I do to waste my time.
Astronomy. My first scientific interest was the stars, if I remember right. I belong to the founding members of the club of Bremerhavener Sternfreunde. This is a group of amateur astronomers in Bremerhaven. They meet on a weekly basis and already had some projects together with the local adult education facility.
Stones. During my former holiday trips I was always fascinated by stones. Together with my father I excavated fossils and more or less rare minerals in southern Germany and Scandinavia.
What about photography? That is another passion of mine. I like to take photos, wherever I am. For some years I have been the photographer of the naval choir "Blaue Jungs aus Bremerhaven". I put some of my pictures on a special page, be sure to visit it!
Electronics and computers. The first contact with electronics I remember was me, building towers out of BNC adapters in my fathers cellar. Later on I bought a package of resistors an learned the color code by sorting them. I once planned to build a own computer, based on a 6502 processor, that was just before I got my first computer, a C=/plus4 in 1986. All friends had their C=64 and since these computers were so incompatible I had to write every programm on my own. I still have two boxes of 170kB discs from that time. In 1989 I purchased my first PC. It was a 286/12 with 1MB RAM and 20MB harddisc space, monochrome 12 inches green on black. Only a few month later I upgraded to color screen with a NEC 3D, which blasted of its high voltage transformer after only four years of work. I upgraded this computer to a 386SX, before I bought a 386DX33 in 1991. Since then my father is working on my old computer - until 1999 it is a 486/2-80, while I am always a step behind the state of the art. Right now (April 2000) I have an AMD K6-III/400 with plenty of RAM and harddisk space, but I still watch the world through my 10 year old NEC 3D - not for much longer though, as I expect the delivery of my new screen any day...
StarTrek. As a real nerd (38%), I also watch every StarTrek episode on TV. I remember the time, when the original series was first broadcasted by german television in the middle of the 70s. But I must admit that I still don't know the episode "Patterns of Force", censored by german authorities. Of course the story of all episodes is flatened by german synchronisation, which has always been bad, especially since it is done by the privat television SAT1.
Sports. I am not a sportsman! When I still visited school I was member of a swimming team and later on I learned to enjoy running (not swimming!) in the navy. Though I learned to ride a bicycle rather late, there is nothing higher for me. I almost do everything by bicycle and when the weather is fine, I often go on tour for severall hours.
Anything I forgot? I surely think so, but I think that's enough for the moment...
Responsible for these pages: U. Zimmermann