What is your earliest memory? My father waking me up in the middle of the night to watch a lunar eclipse. I was barely three years old, but I still remember exactly where we stood in the garden. My father, a science enthusiast, explained everything to me. I don’t know if I actually understood it at the time, but I remember asking lots of questions. That’s where my love of astronomy began. As a child, I devoured my father’s astronomy magazines and mostly used the binoculars I got for birdwatching to gaze at the sky. When I was a teenager, I borrowed money from my parents – I spent months working off the loan by mowing the lawn and doing the dishes – to buy a telescope to observe Halley’s Comet.
Becoming a teacher was always part of the plan. To be honest, I never had a plan. My friends teased me when I decided to study astronomy: “What are you going to do with that?” But I just found it interesting. It stimulated my mind. There’s so much to discover in the universe. I thought: I’ll see where it takes me. My wife is in the military, so we’ve had to move every few years. She’s the breadwinner. I’ve been lucky that there’s always been an educational institution nearby where I could teach, including when we moved here in 2018 – our first time living outside the US.
Where’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever lived? Washington State in the northwest. Salmon leaping out of rivers, whales and orcas swimming off the coast in the Pacific… There are mountains and glaciers, but also temperate rainforests and deserts. I did a lot of hiking when we lived there.
"I now care for a whole swarm of bees. I love the buzzing in spring."
Any pets? Besides our cat, I care for hundreds of mason and orchard bees. They lay their eggs in cardboard tubes I put out within a bee hotel, keeping things clean and free from harmful fungi for them. On warm winter days, I put the hotel in the fridge to prevent young bees from emerging before the flowers bloom. I started beekeeping in the US, but I couldn’t bring my bees on the plane. In our new house, I found a few cocoons on the windowsill and carried on from there. Now there’s a whole swarm. I love the buzzing in spring, and they pollinate everything in our garden, from tulips to the apple tree and everything in between.
My hat is my signature look. It’s practical; it keeps the rain off my glasses. Plus, my hair is pretty wild. By now, everyone knows me by my hat. People here call me “Chad with the cowboy hat”. That’s what they call it here. But I’ve lived in Oklahoma, and trust me – this isn’t a cowboy hat. It’s more like an Indiana Jones-style adventure hat.
"Riding a motorbike teaches you to expect the unexpected"
I feel most American when… someone tells me I’m speaking very loudly, or when I get funny looks for wearing a Santa hat before 5 December. I’d also like to blame the American educational system for my struggles with learning Dutch. In the US, you don’t start learning a second language until far too late, so it never really becomes second nature.
What’s in your garage? My first motorcycle – the one I learned to ride on when I was fifteen. When I went to university, my parents let me pick one of the two cars in the garage, but to their surprise, I went for the bike. I’ve taken it everywhere, even here, but it’s not registered in Europe, so I can’t ride it. Would I let my children ride motorbikes one day? Absolutely, despite the dangers. It teaches you to anticipate other road users’ behaviour and expect the unexpected.
What do you want to teach your children? In the US, more and more parents are afraid to let their children go out alone. Thankfully, it’s different here. I like to send my children off with their bikes and tell them to go have fun and not get home before midnight. It’s a great way to explore the world.
"Teaching in a monastery for Tibetan monks was surreal and unique"
You can wake me up for… stargazing, of course – preferably with others. About once a year, I take my two telescopes to Sint Pietersberg on a clear evening and point out all sorts of things to students and passers-by. I also plan to bring my solar telescope to the university during the partial solar eclipse on 29 March.
The most extraordinary place I’ve ever taught: a Buddhist monastery for Tibetan monks in India, as part of a teaching programme with Emory University in the US. It’s not the sort of place you can just visit as a tourist. It was a surreal and unique experience.
Where do you see yourself in ten years? My wife got a new role at her military base, so we no longer have to move every few years. And we enjoy living here, where you can walk or cycle to the shops instead of having to drive everywhere like in the US. Plus, we’d love to see more of Europe before moving back. When will that be? We’d like our youngest son to finish secondary school here, for continuity. After that, we’ll see.