About Me
I am Philip Ilten, a 21 year old undergraduate (entering my senior year!) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (also known as MIT). For those of you who may know my brother Nathan Ilten, this page was partly inspired and modeled after his webpage. After my junior year I realized I had written and produced a lot of material (music, papers, photos, etc.) and that I may as well put it somewhere it could be seen. I have divided this website into five rather self-explanatory parts: About Me, Physics, Math, Music, and Photos. Under Physics and Math I provide many papers that I have written over the years. In Music are a few recordings of me playing and under Photos (which is being developed) there are pictures. The picture at the top of the page was taken by me in Paris of the Les Invalides Church (a veterans' hospital).
Family
I was born in Stevens Point Wisconsin (right in the center of Wisconsin) to Mark and Donna Ilten. I have a brother Nathan Ilten who is three years older than me and a sister Jennifer Miller who is five years older than me. Both of them are complete geniuses; my brother is working on his doctorates in mathematics at the Frei Universitat in Berlin, while my sister will shortly be getting her doctorates in English Literature from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. My father, who is also brilliant, is a lawyer in Stevens Point. My mother died from colon cancer while I was in fourth grade, and while no one can replace her, I have a great step-mother, Karen Ilten.
School
I attended Saint Paul Lutheran School in Stevens Point Wisconsin from kindergarten to 8th grade. There were (and still are) a bunch of great teachers at that school. Some of the more influential were my first grade teacher, Mrs. West, and my fifth grade science teacher, Mr. Rubel. It was from both of these teachers that my passion to learn was developed.
In ninth grade I attended PJ Jacobs Junior High for one year, and then headed over to SPASH (Stevens Point Area Senior High School). Here I spent three excellent years bucking the system and learning from the legendary Mr. Corcoran the true meaning of being a scientist through a variety of classes (Summer Field Studies, Chemistry, independent research, and Science Club). I also spent a lot of time in the music department under the tutelage of Mr. Adams, another excellent teacher and person.
After I graduated from SPASH I headed over to Boston and am currently attending MIT for my undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics. The summer of my sophomore year I started working for Christoph Paus at CERN in Geneva Switzerland, and I continue to do so to this day.
Music
If I were putting these in order of importance, family would come first, and then music. I love music, any kind of music. I play trombone, now for over two thirds of my life, and am a true trombone player at heart. I currently play an Edwards customized horn, which is absolutely unbelievable. I like classical a lot, with Beethoven being my favorite composer (his seventh symphony, second movement is my role model) and Tchaikovsky coming in a close second. Nothing brings me greater joy than playing in a brass quintet or trombone quartet, and I try to do so whenever I get a chance. My freshman year at MIT I played in a trombone octet, which was just glorious.
Computers
Yes, as you can tell, I am a total nerd, and yes, I have devoted an entire section to my computers. Currently I have two actives, Norby and Thorby. Norby (the name is taken from the Norby Chronicles), is indeed a mixed up computer that I cobbled together from free parts, primarily given to me by my totally awesome brother-in-law Adam. Norby is my server, running Apache, along with other assorted things, and he sure does a great job. Thorby (Citizen of the Galaxy, by Heinlein) is my laptop (see, it makes sense, he is free to roam), and is currently running Ubuntu and OS X. I actually am running some Windows in OS X under Parallels, but only sparingly.
Hobbies
I have a lot of hobbies, and this certainly is not an exhaustive list. First off I love to fly, and currently have my private pilot's license. I also like to sail, SCUBA dive (PADI certified), volunteer as an EMT (getting payed is always a bonus), sing in choirs, climb, hike, adventure, backpack, etc. I also love to cycle, and have gone on a few sweet road trips with my good friend Matt Ziehr. Someday we will go on another one. Just recently I was riding around Lake Geneva in Switzerland (around 150 miles, I think), and I decided that my bike needed a name. I was torn between Saphira (Eragon) and Shadowfax (LotR). In the end I decided to go with Shadowfax, although I make no allusions to being Gandalf. My bike is a 2004 model Trek 1500, blue and silver gray. I also have a mountain bike (Trek 820), who is tentatively named Bill (Fatty Lumpkin would be pretty sweet too).
I also really love reading, as can probably be seen from my naming schemes. On the top of my list are (in no particular order): LotR, Harry Potter, Heinlein, E. Nesbitt, Asimov, Dickens, Doyle. Going to London was probably the greatest thing ever because I got to see so many famous places from books. I loved walking down Pall Mall thinking how Phileas Fogg rushed down this very street to the Reform Club. I want to go back.
I am also rather religious (Missouri Synod Lutheran), and while this does not belong under Hobbies, I really do not have anywhere else to put it, so I thought I may as well mention it here. I love learning about other religions and am very fascinated with all of them.