Brett Lauren Becker
Education
09/2002 –
09/2003
– University
College
London
– London,
UK
Master
of Science in
Theoretical Psychoanalytic
Studies
- Received
an overall mark of Distinction
for end-of-term exams.
- Dissertation
The Uncertain Subject
defended successfully before program faculty 09/2003.
- Overall
Program Mark: High 2nd
Class Honors.
08/1996 –
04/2000
– Alma
College
– Alma,
Michigan,
USA
Bachelor
of Arts in
Psychology and Philosophy
- Graduated
Cum Laude.
- Received
Departmental Honors
in both Psychology and Philosophy.
- Senior
Thesis in Psychology, The effects
of long-term nicotine ingestion on spatial learning, anxiety, and hippocampal
cells in rats, presented at:
i. The Midwestern
Psychological Association Fall Conference in Chicago,
IL.
1998
ii. The Society
for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Miami,
FL. 1999.
Abstract also published for
this meeting.
- Senior
Thesis in Philosophy, Freud:
Defending the Damned, defended
successfully before faculty of the Philosophy Department 04/2000.
- Overall
GPA: 3.7/4.0
– Psychology GPA: 3.6/4.0 – Philosophy GPA 3.9/4.0
Experience
12/2004 –
Present
– Domino’s
Pizza, Inc. – Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
USA
Help
Desk Analyst
– Computer Operator
- Responsibility
for overnight
operation and administration of 400 Intel- and SPARC-based Dell and IBM
AIX servers in the Domino’s World Resource
Center.
- Racking,
base operating
system (Windows Server 2003, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX) installation,
patching, and upgrading of new and current servers and components.
- Tape
backup procedures to
ensure data integrity.
- Responsible
for the
development of documentation (HTML & PDF) for administrative
procedures.
06/2004 –
12/2004
– Manpower,
Inc.
– Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
USA
Domino’s
Pizza, Inc.
Level 1
Helpdesk Consultant
- Assist
and troubleshoot
problems for several thousand users of Information Services equipment
for a multi-national corporation.
- Perform
over-the-phone
diagnostics and repair of system problems, both hardware and software.
- Perform
basic helpdesk
functions such as password resets, application installation and
upgrade, as well as account and network administration.
Technical
Writer
- Create
new and modify
existing documentation for an expanding Knowledge Base.
- Explore
and understand all
client applications to assist in creating call scripts for other Level
1 Helpdesk Consultants to use.
- Assist
with creation of a
Team Member Training Manual for use with new employees.
10/2003 –
08/2004
– Barnes
and Noble Booksellers, Inc. – Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
USA
Lead
Bookseller
- Assist
customers in finding
and purchasing books in the store and online.
- Personal
control over the
largest single section of the store, including responsibility for
preparing current promotions and displays, cleanliness, and
user-friendliness.
- Responsibility
for in-depth
knowledge of materials in the store and specifically in the section
under my personal control, so as to better assist customers in making
informed decisions about their book purchases.
01/2002 –
07/2003
– University
College
London
Information Systems – London,
UK
UCL
Information Systems
Helpdesk
- Assist
faculty, staff, and
student users of University-wide computer and network services.
- Diagnostics,
troubleshooting, and repair of a variety of hardware and software
problems on varied platforms.
- Network
and account
administration, including account management, suspension and lock-out,
password reset, and TCP/IP troubleshooting.
08/2000 –
06/2002
– Interlochen
Center
for the Arts – Interlochen,
Michigan,
USA
Residence
Hall Counselor
- Help Arts
Academy students from around the
world with personal, social, and scholastic problems, with a specific
focus on conflict-resolution.
- Attend
weekly meetings with
other Academy Residence Hall staff.
- Responsible
for parental
contact, Hall activities and outings, detailed paperwork and grading,
and the personal wellbeing of students under my care.
01/1997 –
01/2000
– Alma
College Psychology Department – Alma,
Michigan,
USA
Teacher’s
Assistant
- Assistant
for both the
Introduction to Psychology and Physiological Psychology classes.
- Responsible
for the setup
and explanation of experimental equipment.
- Responsible
for care and
handling of experimental animals used by psychology students and
faculty.
- Class-front
teaching of
psychological theories, constructs, models, and experimental design, as
well as tutoring and grading of student assignments.
Technical
Experience
Operating
Environments:
i. Linux: Redhat
Linux 6.2 – 9, Fedora Core 1 – 3, Gentoo
Linux, Ubuntu Linux
ii. Solaris 8
– 9
iii. IBM AIX
iv. FreeBSD
v. OpenBSD
vi. SCO UNIX
i. Windows 3.0
–
3.11
ii. Windows 95
–
ME
iii. Windows NT,
2000, XPSP1/2, Server 2003
i. Apple IIe,
GS
ii. MacOS
8 – 9
iii MacOSX
10.1 – 10.3
Software
Environments:
- Open
Source / Free Software:
XFree86, Xorg,
GNOME, KDE, Gimp, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla,
Mozilla Firefox,
Mozilla
Thunderbird, Nvu, KOffice,
Konqueror,
Ethereal, and assorted system, networking, and software configuration
tools (e.g. GCC, emerge, apt, yum, kernel configuration utilities, kudzu, Emacs,
vi, ed, joe, bash, etc.)
- Closed
Source / Proprietary
Software: Microsoft Office (up to 2003), Active
Directory, SMS Administration Console, Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat,
Illustrator, Novell GroupWise, Norton Antivirus, McAfee VirusScan, Dameware
NT Utilities, Heat Call Logging, and assorted system administration and
configuration tools (e.g. shell utilities and Windows networking
diagnostic tools)
Networking:
- Protocols:
TCP/IP, NetBIOS,
Microsoft Networks, Microsoft File and Printer Sharing, Bluetooth,
Infrared, Firewire,
802.11b, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, SSL, SSH, Telnet, IRC, and Ethernet
- Software:
TCPView,
Ethereal, PuTTY,
MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, gAIM,
OpenSSH, gFTP,
Filezilla, ZoneAlarm
Pro, MS Windows XP Firewall, and others
- Hardware:
WLAN stations,
Dell PowerEdge
servers, PCMCIA, Ethernet cabling, routers, and hubs, etc.
Affiliations
and Awards
Affiliations:
American Civil
Liberties Union, Psi
Chi National Psychology Honor
Society (Alma
College
Chapter), Theta Chi Fraternity (Eta
Nu
Chapter), Electronic
Frontier Foundation, National Honor Society
Awards: National
Merit
Scholarship, Alma College Presidential Scholarship (four straight
years), Alma
College MacGregor
Grant for summer research in 1999,
1st
Place award for 1999 Alma College Writing Contest for a piece of
short fiction (which was also published in the Alma College Pine River
Anthology).
Interests
and Aims
My primary
interests are
twofold: first, I have been involved with technology and
computer-related
fields throughout my life, and find myself at home in technical fields. I
enjoy observing and partaking in developing
technologies such as the adoption of Open Source and Free software,
embedded
devices, and web-based applications. My
other primary interest is in Freudian and Lacanian
psychoanalysis,
and especially where its theory and practice applies to the junctions
between quantum
mechanics, linguistics, optics, mathematics, philosophy, neuroscience,
and neural
network theory.
My other interests
include
travel, sailing, reading, politics, art, number theory, music, and
poetry.
References are available
upon request