Charles Surowiec was born in Orlando, Florida. His family relocated to Los Angeles, California where he began school, but most of his childhood was spent in a small town in Upstate New York. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Buffalo with an Electrical Engineering degree. He obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Rochester, and has a published thesis on chaos theory and particle detection. He still resides in Upstate New York with his wife, three children, and a yellow lab named Odin. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, traveling, and training for triathlons.