Personal Tidbits
I am married to Dr. Maria Marjorette O. Pena (Marge) who is a
tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the
University of South Carolina. We have two children, Judith Christa (b. 1986)
and Michelle Anne (b. 1988). Judith lives and works (at Blue Apron) in New York City. Michelle lives
in Oakland, California and works in an Architectural firm (Studio Terpeluk)
in San Francisco. Judith graduated (BS Biology and English) from the University
of South Carolina, while Michelle graduated (BA Architecture) from Columbia
University.
I hail from the Philippine Islands, in
particular, the Island of Catanduanes. The see where it is, visit Philippines and look into
the middle right portion for the small island in the Pacific Ocean.
For my hobbies I like listening to music,
preferably classical music (including opera), reading science, mathematics and
John leCarre type novels, playing chess though I am technically retired from competitive
chess (see current
rank in South Carolina). I sometimes play in the Columbia Chess Club on
Thursdays. For physical sports, I like to play squash, mostly with students and
faculty colleagues at the Strom
Thurmond Recreation Center.
I also like to spend my leisure time doing
things with computers like browsing the Internet and feasting on FaceBook and doing some programming, mostly with the R
Statistical Package. I enjoy studying anything that fancies my mind!