University Professor and Professional Developer

Matt P.

I am an experienced teacher, published philosopher of science, physics graduate student, and professional software engineer. I have a BS Cum Laude in mathematics and philosophy (with "Specialization in Computing") from UCLA and an MA and PhD in philosophy (specializing in logic, philosophy of mathematics, and physics) from the University of Chicago, and I am currently working on an MS in physics at UW Seattle. I taught philosophy for five years at the London School of Economics and one at the University of Bristol, and I have taught logic, mathematics, physics, and computer science at various other colleges. I was a corporate software engineer for 10 years, working mostly in Java, C++, and C.

I began privately tutoring mathematics in the Los Angeles area around 1990, with students ranging from elementary school to university levels. I also tutored high school physics for the USC Med-COR program and Astronomy at Santa Monica College around that time. While studying in Chicago, I tutored all ages, from three to 65, in nearly every subject, including phonics, grammar, math, sciences, and French. I also taught logic courses at Purdue Calumet, St. Xavier University, and the University of Chicago Center for Continuing Education and served as a T.A. in courses on logic and early modern philosophy at the University of Chicago. I have taught analytic philosophy, philosophy of science, metaphysics, early modern philosophy, and philosophy of religion at the LSE Bristol. I have also taught algebra, trig, precalculus, physics, and Java programming at community colleges.

I wrote my PhD on non-computability in classical mechanics and planetary systems and won the Philosophy of Science Association essay prize. I have since published several papers about theories of number and the infinite, probability theory, and cosmology. I am a skilled writer and fastidious grammarian; I scored 710 on the SAT English test (1987) and 100% on the UCLA composition placement exam.