Kinetic Books is a Seattle software company that creates digital curriculum. The inaugural products that Kinetic Books is bringing to market are a physics textbook and a set of virtual physics labs, four years in the making and involving extensive collaboration amongst professors, teachers, editors, instructional designers, software developers and artists. Millions of dollars have been spent building these products and the systems used in their creation. The contributors come from backgrounds in academia, software development and the arts, and in some cases a combination of these fields. Click here for a contact form for inquiries and here for the address and phone number of the company.

The company's CEO, Bruce Jacobsen, was previously general manager of Microsoft's Kids/Games Business Unit and President of RealNetworks, Inc. At Microsoft, Bruce worked on many educational products, including the first versions of the programming language used in Lego Mindstorms robots. Mr. Jacobsen received his B.A. summa cum laude from Yale University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.B.A. from Stanford University with little distinction but much relief.

The lead faculty participant for the physics textbooks and labs is Professor Rich Louie, chairman of Pacific Lutheran University's Department of Physics. Rich received his bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Harvard College, and his M.S. and Ph.D degrees in physics from Cornell University.

Mark Bretl, VP, has 21 years of experience in the software industry. He served as President of Tecmar, Inc. and was Chief Operating Officer of Vivo Software Inc., which was acquired by RealNetworks, Inc., where he then served as Vice President. Mr. Bretl earned his B.S. in physics at the University of Wisconsin. While in school, he spent time at the NASA Johnson Space Center working in the Mission Control Main Engines Group for the first Space Shuttle launch and at Monsanto Research Corporation doing particle collisions in a low pressure chamber.

Jesse Deming, who leads development efforts for Kinetic Books' physics simulation system, served in the U.S. army artillery, which has made physics projectile problems of special interest to him!

Rebecca Wilcox graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in physics and astronomy. While in school, she spent time at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in La Serena, Chile, participating in research projects in extragalactic astronomy. While at the University of Washington, Rebecca worked for the university's Physics Department on the ATLAS project, building and testing parts for a particle detector that will soon be installed at the CERN labs in Switzerland.

Lael Hebert received her B.A. in physics and astronomy from Wesleyan University and her M.S. in mathematics from Western Washington University. Lael taught algebra and pre-calculus courses to undergraduate students at Western.

Kevin Goldyn, Art Director, graduated from the State University of New York at Geneseo with a B.A. in fine arts and a B.A. in English. He also has an A.A. in animation from the Art Institute of Seattle. He has supervised the creation of the thousands of illustrations and animations in our physics products.

Lovett Miller & Co., Incorporated, has invested in the company. Mr. W. Radford Lovett II is a board member.

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