User:Laburke

My name is Luke Anthony Burke. I am a professor emeritus of Organic Chemistry at Rutgers University on the Rutgers-Camden Campus. Although I retired in 2014, my research interests continue to be in Theoretical Chemistry.

In 1972 I left my native New York City for Belgium to complete my doctoral studies in Quantum Chemistry at the French speaking part of the Catholic University of Louvain (as it was known at the time). Until 1976 I lived in the Flemish city of Leuven (Louvain in French and in older English references). I remained in Belgium and France until 1979 when I returned to New York, only to cross the North River (Hudson River to non-New Yorkers) in 1980 and take a position on the Rutgers faculty. I was invited to do research at the Department of Theoretical Chemistry at Oxford University in 1986-7 and at the Chemistry Department of the National University of Ireland, Galway in 1998 and 2004.

I have a deep appreciation for the two cultures in Belgium. In fact, I married a Belgian with roots in the two Communities. Our daughter was born in the Heilige Hart Kliniek op de Naamsestraat in Leuven even though we had recently moved to the nearby (French speaking) Louvain-la-Neuve.

Our son was born in the Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Although he grew up in New Jersey, he had frequent contact with his Belgian cousins and even went through the fifth form in a little National School (Ireland) in Ballymanagh, outside of Craughwell, County Galway. He received his diplôme in photography from the HELB Ilya Prigogine college in Brussels and is in his second year in the engineering school of the Free University of Brussels.

My own heritage is mostly Irish, but with a good dose of English. One of my uncles was from Kent and one of my aunts came from Belfast/Limerick. I have both Irish and British friends (even some in a sort of gray/grey zone).

I see that the old disputes and records of wrong-doings are making their way to the articles and discussions on Wikipedia. That's good. History should record them (well referenced, of course). However, it pains me to see those articles where a majority's well formed opinion appears but the minority's well formed opinion disappears from the article or is linked away to another article. Both the majority's and the minority's considered opinion should be represented in the same article.

Slán leat, all the best, tot ziens, salut, pax tēcum!