| I came to
Rhode Island for the first time when I was about 8 weeks old. The
memory of that trip is a little fuzzy, but since then I had been
vacationing here for many years, before being enrolled in architecture
studies at RISD in 1987. I moved back to Pennsylvania and other
points including, Carbondale, Colorado and Towson, MD, just outside
Baltimore. I moved to RI permanently in 1999 and it was shortly
after that I began classes here at the University of Rhode Island. In
May 2004, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with degrees in Biomedical
Engineering and Electrical Engineering. In the Fall 2004, I began
graduate work based on my undergraduate work in neurophysiology and in
May of 2008, received the PhD in Electrical Engineering.
I was born in Pennsylvania, where I lived for 25
years. I have one sister, Kim, who lives in Florida with her
husband Kenny and my niece Jackie, who started FSU in the fall of 2004.
My dad lives in Delaware and my mom lives here in Rhode Island.
For money and passion, I am a wine consultant
and manager for a fine wine shop in Providence, called
Campus Fine Wines. I
taste, on average, about 20 different wines per week, not to mention
beers and spirits from around the world. And when I go to industry
tastings, that number will jump to about a hundred wines. I have
been in the wine business for over 18 years and have accumulated
knowledge on well over 4000 wines in that time. (Of course, some
of that knowledge I can't quite recall, but that's a different story.)
I conduct professional and charity wine tastings from time to time.
I only work about once or twice a year in this capacity since my other
occupations keep me a little tied up ... have to put the PhD to use
sometimes!
I currently live in Wakefield, RI with my Wife
Maura, who received a BS from the College of Nursing at URI. She
is an ER nurse at South County Hospital. We have three children:
Sophia, who was
born in September, 2007; Gabriella, who was born September 2009; and
Julia, who was born in June 2011.
Email:
diceccoj@ele.uri.edu |