I grew up in western New York near Rochester, and went to school at Victor Central Schools. I participated in Victor's competitive field band during junior high and high school as part of the color guard and (senior year) as drum major. I also played flute and piano in other musical groups, such as the concert band, orchestra, pep band, jazz ensemble, and pit orchestra for a number of school musicals. After Victor, I traveled to Poughkeepsie, NY (about 75 mi. north of NYC) to study astronomy at Vassar College. While there I had the honor of working with Debra Elmegreen and Fred Chromey, my advisors and close friends. I also got the chance to undertake several summer internships at other institutions including Colgate University (under the direction of Tom Balonek), the NRAO's VLA (under the direction of Miller Goss), and the Space Telescope Science Institute (under the direction of Kailash Sahu). From Vassar, my astronomical ambitions led me to Hawaii. I was a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii from August 2001 to August 2007. I worked with Alan Stockton and Ken Chambers on my Ph.D. dissertation entitled, "Formation and Evolution of Massive Galaxies and AGN in the Early Universe". I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Adaptive Optics at UC Santa Cruz. I am working with Claire Max to define the science cases and their requirements on system and instrument design for the next generation adaptive optics facilty at the Keck Telescopes. In my free time I love to go hiking, bodyboarding and surfing. I also enjoy playing the flute and piano. My brother is much more musically inclined than myself; he plays trumpet in a hip Boston group called The Gulf. While in Hawaii, I played ultimate frisbee with the Hawaii Ultimate League Association (HULA). I hope to get back into ultimate here in the bay area soon. I recently got married; it was a beautiful ceremony on the north shore of Oahu with our closest family and friends. We have posted some pictures here. I love to hear from old friends and random web surfers, so feel free to e-mail me at: mcgrath [at] ucolick.org.