Physics Professor Dr. Brad Marston

Background Mode

Dr. Brad Marston is a professor of physics at Brown University and Associate Director of the Brown Theoretical Physics Center. A graduate of Caltech, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and did postdoctoral work at Cornell University. Brad is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and is also an Apple developer.

Brad and I chatted about his computational and theoretical physics career. At Caltech, he attended physics classes taught by two of his heroes, the legendary physicists Dr. Richard Feynman and Dr. Kip Thorne. There, he developed his interest in quantum physics and computational models. Later, when he left Sun workstations behind, he adopted the UNIX-based Mac and Xcode as his tools of choice. That’s what he used to build his visual climate model, GCM, already compiled for Apple Silicon. Tune in and geek out with me and this amazing physicist and Mac guru.

Today our sponsor is Linode.

Linode helps you design, develop and deploy in the cloud.

You can build dedicated CPU, distributed applications, hosted services, websites, and CI/CD environments. If it runs on Linux, it runs on Linode.

Linde is focused on simplicity, service, and value. Built using the most up to date hardware and a Next Generation Network backbone, Linode allows users to comply with in-country data protection requirements while taking advantage of all Linode’s technology and tools.

The goal is to maximize the benefit you receive from your cloud by making it cost-effective to deploy robust compute, storage, and networking services that meet your ever-changing performance needs.

Featured are native SSD storage, a 40 Gbit network, and industry leading processors

Pick from any of 10 worldwide data centers including the newest in Toronto.

Pay only for what you use with hourly billing across all plans and add-on services. Plus, 24 x 7 live customer support is always just a phone call away.

You’ll be able to deploy and maintain your infrastructure simply and cost effectively.

Plus, Linode’s tools make it easy to provision, secure, monitor, and back up your cloud.

To learn more, visit linode.com/BGM. All new customers will receive a $20 credit.

My Background Mode interview with Dr. Brad Marston

• Brad on Twitter.
• [e-mail]
• Brad's faculty page at Brown.
• The GCM climate model for macOS.
• GCM code & privacy policy.

_______________________

• Support TMO when you buy your Apple gear from Apple.
• The story of my Background Mode podcast.
• Inside TMO’s Background Mode podcast.
• TMO Background Mode Twitter feed.
• Archive of all Background Mode Shows.
• Background Mode at iTunes.
• Send your comments to [e-mail] or [e-mail]