Leon Poon
or 
for you Sinophiles!
or sometimes 
Graduate Student
Department of Physics
Institute for Plasma Research
Self-appointed Director of this Web site
Chief organizer of group lunch
Former VP of PGSA
TA from hell
Class Monitor from 4th to 6th grade
Voted cutest and most cuddly baby by Mom!
and the list goes on...
Quips from Yours Truly
I confess, I didn't do it!
Oops! I made a Freudian Flip. (Not to be confused with your mere Freudian
Slip!)
With my luck, I'll probably burn the bridge when I come across it.
Above all else, to thine own butt be true (with apologies to Shakespeare)
The Birth
Once upon a time in a land
far far away, I came into
... Yikes, my life is winking in and out of
existence! Ok, back to the narrative. Where was I?
Ah, yes, our hero, moi, was and still am the proud offspring of parents of Chinese
extraction, specifically
Cantonese
and Hakka. For
those of you who can't tell a "ngiu" from a "ngau", I suggest you
read
up on the differences between these two ancient dialects.
BTW, both "ngiu" and "ngau" refer to cow in Hakka and Cantonese
respectively. 
Oh, stop your MOOing!!
The Move
After spending most of my childhood years soaking up the sun near a beach,
my family decided that a change in scenery would jolt us out of our
complacency. We promptly immigrated to the Great White North eh?
(Canada, that is).
Brrrr!!! I can still remember the first day I set foot on the land of the Canucks.
It was frigging -40 (in both Fahrenheit and Celsius!) with the windchill factor.
This is COLD by any standards, but you have to imagine coming from a
land that only has two seasons (rainy and dry) and where the mean annual temperature
is around 85 degrees Fahrenheit (or 30 degrees C).
The Formative years
I spent my formative years growing up in
Edmonton,
Alberta
during the heydays when both the Eskimos (football) and the Oilers (hockey)
were on top of their respective heaps. In fact, Edmonton is known
as the "City of Champions" because the
Eskimos reigned supreme in
the Canadian Football League in the early to
mid-80's and the
Oilers
continued the championship tradition by picking up five Stanley Cups
from mid to late 80's. Besides sports, the city is also famous
for having the world's largest indoor shopping mall --
West Edmonton Mall!
The College years
For economic reasons (otherwise known as El Cheapo) and matters of convenience
(mainly Mom's cooking - Mom, you're the greatest!), I decided to stay at home
and attend the good old
University of Alberta
majoring in, of all things, Mathematical Physics! The University's
Physics Department is a
quaint little department that is famous for its research in General Relativity,
especially Professor Werner Israel. While there, I was under the superb guidance of
Professor Abdul N. Kamal. He is an excellent teacher, and he gives pretty informative
and amusing talks on the process of doing science (especially his cold fusion talks).
The Transitional Years (to what?)
Instead of going to greener pastures after graduating from U of A, yours truly
decided to be a masochist and continue onwards in physics by pursuing grad studies.
With...uh...great foresight and...um...elaborate planning, I chose
University of Maryland for grad studies
knowing that it has an Absolutely Fabulous
Chaos Group (Hey, if I don't
toot our own horns, who will?) Thus endeth the smashing tale of how I
got here. Hello, are you still there? Hey, WAKE UP!
The Future?
Hopefully,
The Post-Doctorate
The Professor
The Nobel Prize Winner
The Demented Scientist
The World Dictator
The Work
I have dabbled in shadowing, but
a paper in that area probably won't come out until next year. Meanwhile,
I have mucked around in a couple of other areas, and they will see the
light before the long shadowing article. First, there is a paper called
"Controlling Complexity" which just
appeared in Physical Review Letters. We also just finished a paper that
involved both fractal basin boundaries and
chaotic scattering, and you can check it
out in the paper "Wada Basin Boundaries in Chaotic Scattering."
The Play
What do I do for fun? Well, all sorts of things, but unfortunately most are
unprintable ... No, silly, they are in Chinese!. OK, here's some fun
staff I have done in the past -- My death-defying
rafting adventure last summer or
my vanity license plate collecting hobby.
Currently, I am working on my
History Project!
Drop by and see if I have bitten off more than I can chew.
Of course, don't forget to check out my hot links! 
Comments or Questions? Well, come on down and give me a
holler!
Oh yeah, you can also find out what gets my goat 
...ur...
I mean what's my beef!
