PLP 08 Profile: Art Lichtenberger

Name: Arthur Lichtenberger
Age: 50
Born: Westfield NJ; grew up Westfield MA
Current digs: Charlottesville VA
Occupation: Research Professor
Favorite part about the job: Working with graduate students
Your first job ever? Camp Counselor Archery & Riflery Instructor
Favorite book? Anna Karenina
Favorite movie? The Long Kiss Goodnight or Doctor Zhivago
Comfort food? Lamb, cheese souffle, martini
What's in your car CD player right now? Vampire Weekend; The Extraordinaires (Ribbon of War); Linda Ronstadt (What's New); Television- Tom Verlaine; Talking Heads (Stop Making Sense)
Next journey? Chicago
Favorite Virginia vacation spot? Home, for a great meal with friends or Bath County in a pinch
First political memory? JFK assasination
Whom do you admire and why? Our dog Jack - he is always  in a good mood and happy to be with you.
Best advice you ever got? Don't run around your backhand— advice from my mother-in-law at our wedding
If you could have dinner with any one currently living, whom would it be and why? Mark Bittman...  a fantastic cook!
Describe a perfect day. Wake up & go downstairs, say hi to the dogs & let them out, make two cups of tea for my wife, get Emily up,   make lunch for Emily & Ted and think about their day, start the coffee, walk outside and get the papers... throw a stick for Jack to chase, eat breakfast with Liz and read the New York Times and Washington Post over coffee, let Jack and Sam in and tell Jack he is a big boy, get Ted up, take shower and smile that I live in a country where hot running water is the norm, get out of the shower with the realization of some solution or partial solution to a scientific problem at work, walk to work reading the sports page, in the lab accomplishing  stuff that would make a rocket scientist green with envy, answer emails on the volunteer, neighborhood, political front,  home for lunch with Liz and another two cups of tea, update websites I am in charge of, back to work and meet with students, finish a proposal to NSF, light a ICP plasma and admire the magenta glow off the stainless steel chamber, test a new wafer and it works splendidly, text my daughter Lydia while walking home, off to soccer practice with Emily where I coach and work up a sweat and see progress in the girl's play, home to a dinner with some friends where I make fresh pasta with lamb, artichokes and carrots & where we drink a couple bottles of wine over hours of good food and laughter, check email & respond to Sorensen missive, work on Chris & my "Shoot first, or restrain and educate" children's book, let Jack & Sam out for a bit and stand outside in the cool air while admiring the 387,000 km to the moon, shut the house's lights off, go upstairs and read a bit with my wife in bed and then talk more about the moon.
One thing most people might be surprised to learn about you? I'm a strong introvert according to Myers Briggs
Ambition, political or otherwise?  To cook the perfect chocolate souffle