People I admire

Carl Sagan

Rigor joined with wonder

Sagan could hold scientific rigor and a profound sense of wonder at the same time. He made enormously complex ideas understandable without making them small. As someone drawn to astronomy, education, and the work of explaining technology, I admire that combination of curiosity, clarity, humility, and imagination.

He is a reminder that understanding more about the universe should deepen our sense of possibility.

Leonardo da Vinci

Curiosity without boundaries

Leonardo did not separate art, science, observation, and engineering into isolated disciplines. He studied how things worked, drew what he saw, and used those drawings to think. That approach feels closely aligned with a career that has moved among hardware, software, architecture, teaching, and creative work.

His notebooks show how making an idea visible can be the first step toward making it real.

Alan Turing

Computation & possibility

Margaret Hamilton

Software worthy of the mission

Hamilton helped establish software engineering as a discipline when software was too often treated as secondary to hardware. Her Apollo team designed asynchronous software, priority scheduling, end-to-end testing, and priority displays that helped critical work continue during unexpected computer overload. That resonates strongly with my own background in avionics, architecture, and embedded systems: reliability must be designed into the whole system from the beginning.

The standard she represents is clear: understand what can go wrong, protect what matters most, and make the software earn trust.

Stephen Covey

Principles before technique

Covey’s work treats effectiveness as something grounded in character, principles, and deliberate choices. That resonates with the way I approach engineering and leadership: begin with a clear understanding of what matters, design around the whole system, and help people become more capable rather than more dependent on the process or the expert.

The enduring idea for me is that useful frameworks should improve judgment, not replace it.

Albert Einstein

Physics & imagination

Steve Jobs

Design & invention