Michael Thomas Smith is a reader, writer, playwright, novelist, musician, researcher, teacher, pinball player, and impromptu traveler who drinks both coffee and tea every morning and has a fondness for petrichor.

Petrichor?

“I’m not a princess! I’m an engineer,” said Abrar Hammoud’s 10-year-old daughter to her brother, protesting about being mischaracterized. Abrar, sensing a transcendent moment, recognized that her daughter had broken free from societal typecasting.

“I don’t know how to use this thing. Go figure it out, come back, and teach me.” Those were the instructions given to Rich Dionne by one of his mentors as an undergraduate.