Bruce earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a minor in Design for Learning from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He began his career as a Business Development Analyst at Lazurite, a surgical equipment startup, where he worked directly with the CEO and President. In this role, he supported various business functions, including project management, investor relations, business analysis, and executive reporting.  He later returned to Carnegie Mellon to complete a Master’s in Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science. During his graduate studies, he served as the Vice President of Finance for the Graduate Student Assembly and led a team of graduate students on a client project for Scholastic Publishing. After graduation, he continued at CMU as a Research Associate, coordinating an NSF-funded “future of work” project that leveraged CMU’s EdTech to improve job prospects for community college students in IT and cybersecurity fields. 

 Following his time in academia, Bruce joined Game Genius, a game-based learning non-profit, as an Educational Research Consultant. There, he worked on designing, testing, researching, and deploying educational games focused on government and civics at the high school level. Currently, he lives in Rockville, Maryland, with his wife, a fellow New Jersey native. Outside of work, Bruce enjoys playing soccer and hosting Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) sessions on a near-weekly basis. He also occasionally writes fiction for his wife. 

Other fun facts about Bruce:

What would be the most surprising scientific discovery imaginable?

• I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of discovering life on other planets. It would be especially surprising if we found life that wasn’t carbon-based. Since all forms of life we have currently discovered is carbon-based, any non-carbon biology would be truly alien to us. Bonus points if they aren’t silicon-based either.

What fictional world (comics, TV, books, etc.) or place would you like to visit?

• I would love to visit Middle-earth from The Lord of the Rings. Listening to elves sing while reading a book in Rivendell or Lothlórien sounds like a dream, and I’d love to watch a sunset from the Grey Havens or snap a photo of the Argonath near the falls of Rauros as a tourist! This might explain why I’ve always wanted to go hiking in New Zealand.

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

• There are so many to choose from, but I’d have to go with Alexander Hamilton. Aside from seeing his reaction to the Hamilton musical and how he’s remembered today, I imagine it would be an incredibly insightful dinner conversation about politics, economics, and the importance of hard work. I would love to pick his brain about our country’s current debt crisis, though I’m a little worried about how he’d answer.

If you had a time machine, would you go back or into the future? And why?

• If I had a working time machine, the first thing I’d want to do is test causality. I’d travel just a few days into the future to observe various things in my everyday life. Afterward, I’d go back to the present to see if I could change the outcomes that I saw. If I could change them, that might be evidence for a slew of multiverse theories, but if I couldn’t, I would be very worried about the nature of free will. I wouldn’t be gone for long, though. I know my wife would not be happy if I made a habit of disappearing in time.

What’s a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?

• I have a soft spot for romantic musicals. I always cry at the ending of La La Land.