You: Gordon Freeman

                 A native of Seattle, Washington, Gordon
                 Freeman showed high interest and
                 aptitude in the areas of quantum physics
                 and relativity at an extremely young age.
                 His earliest heroes were Einstein,
                 Hawking and Feynman.

                 While a visiting student at the University
                 of Innsbruck in the late 1990's, Gordon
                 Freeman observed a series of seminal
                 teleportation experiments conducted by
                 the Institute for Experimental Physics
                 (see Bowemeester, Pan, Mattle, Eibl,
                 Weinfurter, Zeilinger, "Experimental
                 Quantum Teleportation," Nature, 11
                 December 1997) (see also
                 http://www.sciam.com/explorations/122297teleport).
                 Practical applications for teleportation
                 became his obsession. In 1999, Freeman
                 received his doctorate from M.I.T. with a
                 thesis paper entitled: "Observation of
                 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on
                 Supraquantum Structures By Induction
                 through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of
                 Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse
                 from Mode-Locked Source Array."

                 Disappointed with the slow pace and poor
                 funding of academic research, and with
                 tenure a distant dream, Gordon cast
                 about for a job in private industry. As
                 fortune would have it, his mentor at
                 M.I.T., Professor Alex Kleiner, had taken
                 charge of a research project being
                 conducted at a decommissioned missile
                 base in Black Mesa, New Mexico. Kleiner
                 was looking for a few bright associates,
                 and Gordon was his first choice.
                 Considering the source and amount of
                 funds available to the Black Mesa Labs,
                 Gordon suspected that he would be
                 involved in some sort of weapons
                 research; but in the hopes that practical
                 civilian applications would arise (in areas
                 of quantum computing and astrophysics),
                 he accepted Kleiner's offer. Apart from a
                 butane-powered tennis ball cannon he
                 constructed at age 6, Gordon had never
                 handled a weapon of any sort-or needed
                 to.....until now.