Krista Grothoff

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bullet Welcome!
Welcome to my little home on the web! (The site is still a mess, and I've finally resigned myself to its permanent "under construction" status.)

I was, up until recently, a remote doctoral student in Linguistics (ABD, even) at Purdue University doing research on adult second language acquisition, among other things. I'm currently taking some time off to decide what I really want to do when (if) I grow up, and writing a novel while I do it. I'm also a code monkey, occasional tech writer, and constant troublemaker. Jack of all trades, master of none, as they say... I live in scenic Colorado with my evil German husband, Christian, and spend most of my time trying to avoid ever returning to Southern California, even for money.

More information can be found on the professional and personal pages, although they may not be up-to-date at any given point in time.


After a few years away, I recently returned to the engineering life, immersing my head in all things geeky. I was also (simultaneously) a doctoral student in the Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics at Purdue University, studying adult second language acquisition under the fabulous Margie Berns. I received my MS in computer science (also at Purdue) in 2002, and my BS in computer science in 1999 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. These days, I'm taking some time off to take stock and reevaluate, and it's niiiiice.

My primary research interests revolve around highly successful adult second language learners and privacy and censorship issues, and I still do some research in information security and computational linguistics. I have been a member of CERIAS (Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security) since my arrival at Purdue in 2000, and have also worked as a research assistant for the Purdue Sign Language Linguistics lab on automatic recognition of American Sign Language (ASL).

Outside of my life as a computer geek, I love to travel, read, write (no, you can't read my novel from the 2005 National Novel Writing Month!), and study foreign languages. I used to occasionally sing with the Rivenstar Madrigal Singers, a fun and mostly harmless band of singers associated with the SCA group at Purdue, and I'm trying to start playing french horn (my first college major!) again in a concentrated effort to annoy the neighbors. I also secretly enjoy bike tours (except for the injuries), but don't tell my husband. He'll make me bike through the Himalayas if he finds out...

bullet   News

Main news now available on my blog
Due to the fact that we either are or will soon be new parents, all recent news will henceforth be found on my blog. This is mostly because I'm lazy and because it's an easier format for quick updates, and partly for technical reasons I won't get into. This site is still my main site, but if you're interested in up-to-the-minute drivel (or news about the cute new little Grothoff), the blog is the place to go.

Moved to Colorado! (Yay!)
After a year in Los Angeles, we were rewarded by the gods and now live in lovely Denver, Colorado, where Christian is an assistant professor at the University of Denver and I make trouble in various other, secret ways...

Name change...
Due to intensive efforts by this evil German guy, the geek formerly known as Krista Bennett is no more.

Not-so-new picture!
Ok, so the Lego picture of me was cool, but here's what I really look like in all of my, er, gloriousness:


Last updated 07 November 2007 Krista Grothoff Home Personal Professional Photos Blog Contact