George Phillies

I spent 51 years as an affiliated academic, from 1964 when I enrolled at MIT as a Freshman, to 2015 when I retired as a Full Professor. In between I was for 11 years a student and then post-doc at MIT (the latter with H. Eugene Stanley), for three years a post-doc at UCLA (with Daniel Kivelson), for seven years a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and for 30 years a professor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

I then retired to write. ‘I shall teach no more, forever.’ I have been entirely happy with retirement. From 1964 to the present I have written more than 170 technical papers, more than two dozen books, multiple short stories (some of which won literary prizes), and edited more hobby and political magazines than I care to count. I am still actively doing research, with scientific papers out at journals, a book “Polymer Physics: Phenomenology of Polymeric Fluid Simulations” being written, as well as three novels under active way.

My hobbies haven’t changed. I continue to enjoy science fiction, board wargames, history, and politics. Once upon a time, I read a science fiction novel every week; I am now too busy writing to read, but still have my library. I am primarily a collector of board wargames, and have the largest collection of hexagon-and-counter games in the world, over 7000 titles. I have run three times for Federal political office, and spent a decade as State Treasurer and State Chair of my political party.

My communities are international. I’m President of the National Fantasy Fan Federation (world’s oldest non-local science fiction hobbyist club, founded 1941) and AHIKS (the remaining international board wargaming club). I recently bought and edit two electronic newspapers, Independent Political Report and Third Party Watch, both specializing in coverage of third parties, of which America has many.

In 2006 I moved from a rented town house and purchased my current home, 4500 or so square feet, which I currently share with my cat Pounce. My approach to lawn maintenance has been to replace all the grass with flower beds; I plant perennials, especially bulbs.