User:L Marchese Ph.D. D.Pharm.Sci.

Hello, I'm Lucciano Marchese, originally from Leeds, England, UK, now living in Illinois, USA.

I've been a Stargate fan since the first movie came out when I was a hash-smoking teenager enamored of all things science fiction - wait, I'm still a science fiction and fantasy nerd, but not a hash-smoking one. When it comes to television and film, I've seen pretty much every episode of every SF show ever to air, from Andromeda to Atlantis, from Babylon 5 to Battlestar Galactica, from Star Trek to ''Stargate SG-1. When it comes to genre literature, I've read nearly every fantasy tome printed; my favorites are Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, Brent Week's Night Angel, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth, ''and many more.

I originally wished to study philosophy, and as such, have read much of it, from Aristotle to Rand to Kierkegaard to Sartre to Nietzsche to Benatar and beyond. I'm your standard nerd: you knew me in secondary school. Fascinated with computers, science fiction, fantasy, philosophy, and just about everything else that was not all that popular, and couldn't give a damn about socialising if I was paid. I stayed at home on Friday nights with a book of fantasy, philosophy, or, as often as not, a textbook, and am better off for it.

I work in two separate fields, disparate: I'm a professional student of chemistry, with a special interest in pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacology, with a more specific interest in neurochemistry and psychopharmacology (specifically addiction), and an information security consultant. I hold one Master and three Doctoral-level degrees; I possess an MS in (psycho)pharmacology, and have been awarded doctorates in organic and analytical chemistry and pharmaceutical science; I am a licensed dispensing chemist (pharmacist), though I do not practice as it would interfere with my obsessive drive to learn everything that can be known, and wouldn't generate nearly as much income as security consultancy and penetration testing (think Tiger teams or Hackers). I have no formal training in computer insecurity, but am self-taught to an extensive degree, and I have many industry certifications, ranging from the Red Hat Certified Network Engineer and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator - Security to several Global Information Assurance Certifications, both Silver and Gold level, to the most prestigious Certified Information Systems Security Professional, awarded by (ISC)^2 after a minimum of five years' practice and notable contributions to the field, normally only obtained by people who have made a career in the field of information security, such as full-time professional researchers such as the development leaders of computer security solutions (anti-virus software is a limited example); two careers executed with excellent and dedicated performance in each; one could never tell I had more than one career based on the quality of my work. It's a wonder I have time to spend on the internet.

I have been published seven times as main author and over a dozen times as co-author (an et al.) in several peer-reviewed journals for my research on drug addiction, specfically opioid dependence and withdrawal (I myself am a recovering heroin addict of fifteen years - I'm as amazed as you are, being as successful and learned as I am while being addicted to increasing amounts of diamorphine throughout - I first used when I was 14, first had a habit at 16, and got on methadone maintenance in early 2009, and switched to buprenorphine (Suboxone/Subutex) maintenance in July 2010, and have been extremely successful, and extremely thankful for such a treatment to be available), along with research of the damage caused by MDMA, THC, and NMDA-antagonists such as ketamine, dextromethorphan, and phencyclidine on developing brains, and research in to new treatments for anxiety disorders and insomnia (which I myself have, in addition to another book-full of so-called mental illlnesses) and am currently writing Pharmaceutical Chemistry for Dummies and co-authoring new versions of Chemistry for Dummies and Organic Chemistry for Dummies for IDG Books. The views I hold, several of which my research has established, in regards to several issues, is quite unorthodox (especially in regards to depression, ADHD, and opioid dependence, though the medical orthodoxy is being converted rather quickly to my way of thinking in the treatment of opioid dependency; if this is the mark I leave on the world; I leave it a better place than I found it). I search for the truth, not the politically motivated and shaped truth, and thus have a very hard time receiving government funding, though I do receive funding through the university.

I can speak and write English, write and read classical and modern Greek, and classical, though not vulgar, Latin, and am learning classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. I am a student of all of the world's religions: I am a metaphysician, and a metaphysicist. I do believe in God - a higher power, not necessarily the God of Abraham, though not necessarily not: my one theological view that holds steady - but my theological views vary from one day to the next (if you're interested, I can show you where the Bible itself says that the God of the Old Testament, the tetragrammaton, YHWH - Yahweh orYehovah - is one and the same as Satan of the Old Testament; check out 2 Samuel 24:1-9 and 1 Chronicles 21:1-12: two separate accountings of the same event; compare 24:1 and 19:1 and you'll be surprised) thus I am not a member of any one religion for very long as my views change through rational inquiry and deductive, and inductive, reasoning. I'm also extremely educated in various fields of mathematics, also self-taught, from the required differential calculus through set theory; I don't know whether my love for physics kindled my love for science fiction, or vice verse. For that matter, I'm also a student of the social sciences, though not with the ardour with which I pursue knowledge of our physical universe. I've a confirmed eidetic memory and an IQ of 176, though my emotional intelligence and common sense are ofttimes severely lacking.

Finally, the only label you can stick on me is anti-natalist - it's the only movement whose orthodoxy I hold with - and I'd perform well on Jeopardy, if only I knew one iota of Shakespeare.