About Mr. Aghassi

Mr. Aghassi is glad to meet you. Mr. Aghassi is having a pretty good day, thanks, how about you? Oh, you want to know a little bit about Mr. Aghassi? Well, have a seat, it's a long story.

I was born in New York City. I lived there until he was 18. It was... different from LA. I took the subway everywhere I went starting from 6th grade, and I didn't learn to drive until I was 19 (why would I need to?).

I was a sort of OK student (I failed a lot in middle school). I got really into hobbies though, and was an avid scuba diver, a sk8ter, a rock climber, and a HUGE Yankees fan.

In high school I did much better. In fact, I was a HUGE nerd. I was on the student council, I was the captain of the swimming and diving team, I was the captain of one of the quiz bowl teams, I was the president of the Random Acts of Kindness club, and I was on the math team. (Wow, I am exhausted just saying that!). In 12th grade, I made a project for the New York City Science Fair, and won (I didn't expect to!). They sent me to the International Science Fair which was in Phoenix, AZ.

I went to George Washington University in Washington, DC. I loved GWU because it was right in the middle of DC. The White House was right next to the freshman dorm, and EVERYONE was interested in politics. On the third day of school, I went to the mailbox, and my friend Becky introduced me to Hannah. We all hung out in Hannah's room that night and watched Mulan. The next day, we all went to a giant protest against the war in Iraq. Hannah and I got separated from everyone else, and went to a pub to have dinner together. We have been together since that first date in 2005, and have rarely spent a night apart since then.

During my time at GWU, I got heavily involved with the research projects going on in the physics and civil engineering departments. Through these activities, I helped to deconstruct and analyze cars after crash testing for the National Highwat Transportation Safety Board, and traveled to Germany and Sweden to work in nuclear physics labs. In fact, I traveled quite a bit during college, even doing a semester studying engineering in New Zealand.

After graduation, I took a job working for the United States Navy as a researcher in the Division of Optical Materials at the Naval Research Laboratory. This involved classified work on lasers, and unfortunately, I can't say any more on the matter.

After leaving employ with the Navy, I went on to work for a company as a forensic engineer. What this means, is that companies would send me their products after they failed, and I would very carefully take them apart to tell them how they failed. This was very interesting, and I spent many happy afternoons taking X-rays of laptops and smartphones before cutting them up with circular saws.

After a while, though, I decided to make a shift and go to graduate school. At the University of California Santa Barbara, I studied marine science and physical oceanography with the leaders of the field, working closely with NASA scientists -- at the Goddard Space Flight Center, not JPL. I even went on two research expeditions. This entailed living on a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration ship for months while conducting experiments.

Finally, I realized that my favorite thing to do was teach! So a couple years, one child, and more student debt later, I became a teacher. Along the way, I trained with some of the finest science teachers anywhere, and (of course) some of the finest students everywhere, and now I'm here at La Canada High School!