Who I am and What I do – the updated-ier version

A bit of bio here. My name is Richard Côté. I’m a Canadian expat/newly minted British citizen currently living and working as a software engineer at the European Bioinformatics Institute, in Cambridge, UK. I’ve been married to Katy, the most wonderful woman in the world, for two four years now and we’re expecting the imminent birth of our first child. we have a two-year old beastie that loves to destroy the house and eat grapes. We have two hypoallergenic cats (a natural breed, not the uber-expensive gengineered ones), Tolstoy and Irina (but better known as Reen-pig). We also have an unhealthy fascination with Bobble, the little blue owl.

I hold a master’s degree in Biochemistry, having graduated from at McGill University, in Montréal, Canada. I submitted my thesis on the characterization of the retinoblastoma binding protein 2 (RBP2) on august 31, 2000. My master’s degree was followed by a DESS (master’s level certificate) in computer science at the Université de Montréal, which was completed in 2001.

When I’m not knee-deep in work, I’m an avid reader. I love fiction, sci-fi, techno-thrillers and non-fiction. My all-time favorites include the fiction of Lisanne Norman, the naughty bits of Laurell K. Hamilton, the cyberpunk vision of Neil Stephenson and Neil Gaiman, the techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy, the fantasies of Mercedez Lackey, the wit of Christopher Moore, the space-opera scope of David Weber, the prescience of Jules Vernes, the classics of Arthur Conan-Doyle and too many others. I must also admit that I’m a big Harry Potter fan.

I have so many books that I break my back every time I move. These marvelous people are responsible for such characters as the Sholans and some fiendish vampires, Honor Harrington and the treecats, Jack Ryan, the Free Bards, Captain Nemo and Phileas Fogg, all the Gen-X’ers, Shelock Holmes and Mr. Watson. These people help to keep me sane. I’m always keeping an eye out for new things to read so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to drop me a line.

There’s always music playing around my apartment or at work. I’m a serious classical music buff (Vivaldi and Liszt being favorites), but I also love Jazz (Gershwin, Diana Krall, Alain Caron, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis), Rock (Steve Morse, Hendrix, RUSH), Metal (Metallica, Pantera), Blues (Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Otis Spann), downtempo (Saint-Germain, De-Phazz, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Dido, Delerium, Portishead) and Techno (Propellerheads, Paul Oakenfold, Crystal Method), as well as some golden oldies (CCR, Elvis, The Who, Santana). What I listen to depends on what mood I’m in and how bad a day I had at work…

For those of you still reading, I was born on Aug. 7th, 1975 in Gatineau, Québec. I lived 10 years in Gatineau, then moved to a little rural community called L’Ange-Gardien – where my hay fever and social life took nasty beatings. I studied science in CEGEP and moved to Montréal with a bunch of friends to go to University. Most of my friends went to Polytechnique (a.k.a. l’Ecole qui rend fou!) to study engineering while I went to McGill to study biochem. That’s when my english started to get better than my french. These days, people don’t believe me when I say that I’m french canadian…

So, that’s a bit of who I am. To see most of the links on this page, as well as many others, check out my links page. A lot of the people responsible for making me who I am today can also be found on my Portfolio page.