Torah, Ice Hockey, and Astrophysics

Ira Kalet was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and grew up in Rockville Centre, New York. He attended college at Cornell University, majoring in physics, and obtained a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Princeton University. His career interests included quantum mechanics, computer programming, and medicine which led to a faculty position at the University of Washington in Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Informatics. His research interests include simulation systems for design of radiation treatment planning software for cancer therapy, software development methodology and artificial intelligence applications to medicine, particularly expert systems, ontologies and modeling. While at Cornell he developed a love of hockey and played intramural ice hockey. When he moved to Seattle, Washington in 1968 he was drawn to the mountains, and became an avid high angle rock climber. His many interests in social justice, Torah (Jewish tradition, thought and practice), ice hockey (he played defense on a local recreational ice hockey team) and theoretical physics led him to write this book.