Charles Isbell

The eldest of three boys, Charles Lee Isbell was born in Chattanooga, TN to Charles and Jacqueline Isbell on December 18, 1968. Charles' earliest memory is arriving in Atlanta on a moving truck at the age of three.

Learning

Having developed a strong interest in math and computer science at Benjamin E Mays High School, Charles decided to pursue a degree in computer science at Georgia Tech. Graduating with highest honors, Charles continued to grad school, spending the next several years doing graduate work at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During those years, Charles split his academic time between graduate studies at MIT and industrial internships at AT&T Bell Labs. Upon graduating with his PhD, Charles joined AT&T Labs where he basked in the opportunity to work with an amazing set of folks. In 2002, Charles returned to Atlanta and Georgia Tech's College of Computing where he is able to indulge his research interests and sometimes his other interests as well.

Hyperhacking

Whenever his advisors weren't looking, Charles managed to spend time on a ridiculous set of hobbies. His graduate career coincided with the advent of The Web(tm,c,patent pending), so he has been paving the information superhighway since before that was a cliché. A funky music and hiphop head, Charles began running the funky-music and hiphop, mailing lists (eventually inheriting the turntablism list as well) and wrote track-by-track reviews of hiphop albums online. He also started the Annual New Jack Hip Hop Awards in 1991, the first comprehensive online effort of its kind.

Never one to let something lie when it could be put on the web, Charles also began This Week in Black History a calendar of facts about Black History, also the first comprehensive online effort of its kind. The postings became quite popular, and have been redistributed to hundreds of thousands of users in various forms--credited or not--including in-company mailing lists, newsgroups, educational institutions and the Electronic Urban Report.

Charles does his best to continue all these efforts. You can find evidence of this at seditionists.org, if you're interested.

Playing

Occasionally, Charles does things that don't involve a computer. He plays ultimate a lot. He plays recreationally and has played more seriously with teams in New Jersey, New York and Atlanta (where he only plays offense). Sometimes he will play pick up basketball (where he only plays defense). Otherwise, he's in the gym or the racquetball courts.