About Me
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 8:13 pm. Add a comment
Currently residing in San Antonio, Texas doing research at UTSA. I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. My parents fled Cuba in the early 1960’s fleeing the communist Castro regime. They met and married in Miami. The bulk of my family live in Miami with only a few branches living in other areas of the country and the world. Clearly to all of us, Miami is still home. My life is basically split into two main areas: professional and personal. My professional life revolves around teaching and conducting malware research. I have used computers since I was 10, a Commodore 64 with my first program written at that age in BASIC, and first saw viruses in high school. The virus payloads always fascinated me and sparked my interest in them.
As a teenager, the black hat side of viruses was appealing to me, going into underground bulletin board systems and websites to learn new tips and tricks was a favorite hobby. As time rolled on I got into college and graduate school, when time came to choose a topic for my Master’s Thesis I realized that malware (viruses) was the one topic I really liked and voila! my research career was born. I also found in graduate school that I have a passion for teaching and I’m good at it. I have been able to teach several undergraduate courses and I look forward to continuing down this path.
I also enjoy programming in many languages. So far Iv’e done Cobol, Fortran Pascal, Ada, Prolog, C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, SQL, PhP plus several scripting and internet based technologies. Its amazing how many choices there are today. I really enjoy going deep into operating systems such as the Kernel and further down into firmware and hardware. In my research, this depth of programming is essential. Besides m computer related activities, I also spend time mentoring others and promoting minorities to seek advanced degress in CS. As a Hispanic I feel compelled to do what I can in this area. I am convinced this is a long term goal of main that will span m career and life. My next big step after my postdoc is to attain a tenure track assistant professor position.
My personal life is a cornucopia of several elements including: hobbies, traveling, learning, culture, Geek stuff, etc… Some of my favorite hobbies are collecting collections! I collect many things so I have a collection of collections that I refer to as my museum!! I enjoy going to flea markets, garage sales, I love finding rare and cool things to add to my museum. Currently, some of my fancies are: War memorabilia, Weapons, Brand name promotion items, and Hotel Pens!!! If you have any please contact me to negotiate or donate to the cause.
I enjoy being a tourist in my hometown and traveling around getting to know places and people, but I also love to trek around the globe and see what is beyond the horizon of my eyes. I love good food, good wine and most importantly Good CIGARS!!!!! For me good food could be a 5 star restaurant or a hole in the wall, if the food is good then I’m There! Don’t get me wrong I love to cook also and I’m pretty good at it too. I enjoy going to the Opera, I have season tickets to FGO the currently my parents are enjoying while Im in Texas! I like festivals, wine tastings, book readings, special gatherings and other cultural events where I can learn new things and meet new people. I love the beach and fishing!
I grew up in Miami in a Big Cuban Family, I belong to a unique generation called ñ (pronounced n-yeh) and proudly carry the Miami-Cuban accent. This accent is a mix of bad English from our parents and even worse Spanish. Those of you who have heard it know what I’m talking about. Anyway, I was raised with a strong belief of my heritage. My family always taught me about Cuba as if I was born there (my mom claims my birth is a simple geographical mistake). As a result I have always carried a desire to learn its history.
Ive listened to countless stories from the older genrations. Ive read many books and been invloved with cultural organizations like Cuban Cultural Heritage and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami who look to preserve and pass on Cuba’s history to future generations. I am a hobby genealogist and have built my family tree tracing back my roots roughly 8 generations to Spain and the Canary Islands. I am very proud of my heritage and often consider myself a hybrid of sorts. When people ask me where am I from I always answer: American of Cuban Parents. One day I hope to go to Cuba when a government change occurs, I hope to teach Computer Science at the University of Havana, in the meatime I sit, wait and remember the stories told to me of the Cuba of old…
An overwhelming theme in my life is my desire to learn and teach. It is in fact the fundamental underpinnings of my professional and personal life. The world ( and the universe and beyond for that matter) is to me an enormous living textbook with billions of lessons to learn. Everyday I try to learn one new thing and teach one thing to another person. Everyday that I accomplish this is a day well lived.
I often carry a video camera/digital camera. I use it to capture what occurs aroudn me on a daily basis. Those captures will be a main tool in additions I make to this website. I want to make this website a living entity that changes daily where I can interlace all aspects of my life to share with everyone else. I won’t reveal too many details about myself, some things are better kept private. I hope you enjoy my site and feel free to contact me with your comments
Jose Andre Morales, Ph.D.
jose.morales@utsa.edu- Academic Affairs
jose@joemango.com - Everything Else