Nick Samoylov graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, has worked as a theoretical physicist, and learned to program as a tool for testing his mathematical models. Following the demise of the USSR, Nick created and successfully ran his own software company. In 1999, with his wife Luda and two daughters, he emigrated to the USA and has been living in Colorado ever since, working as a Java programmer. In his spare time, Nick likes to write and hike in the Rocky Mountains.