The Faculty

Head Professor: Dante Shepherd (the pseudonym of Dr. Lucas Landherr) holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Cornell University and is currently a professor at Northeastern University in Boston doing engineering education research. His perspectives on living to the age of ninety-six have been shared with Surviving the World since May 31, 2008.

He lives with his wife, theSwede, and his daughters, Cannonball and Torpedo. (No, those are not their actual names. Obviously)

Lies told while maintaining his pseudonym:
- Dante had a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. (Nope.)
- Dante had a Master's degree in philosophy. (Nope.)
- Dante was a research scientist at the Fred Paulson Institute in Wincheck City, PA during the first two years of STW. (Neither this institute nor this city exist.)
- Dante worked as a government research scientist at the Institute for Scientific Progress and Research in Sharpe Valley, MD for the next two years of STW. (Neither this institute nor this city exist.)
- Dante was older than 30 when STW started. (He was born in 1983.)
- Probably something else. Pseudonyms are hard. You can keep using it, though.

 

Teaching Assistant: German Shepherd holds a B.A. in House Destruction with a minor in Feline-Canine Relations from the University of Phoenix. He grades the STW exams and occasionally steps in to deliver a lesson himself. While he may look like a large beagle, he's actually a Treeing Walker Coonhound, which, in general, is notable for looking like large beagles.

 

 

 

Teaching Assistant: Sprite Shepherd holds a self-taught Ph.D. in Ornithology which culminated in her highly regarded thesis, "Are Birds Tasty?: The Flavor Units Of Winged Creatures And Various Spiders". Funding for future research dried up after the ethics of her methods were called into question. Now a suspected birderer, she contributes occasional lessons to STW while training to become an Olympic lap sitter and food devourer.

 

 

 

 

Teaching Assistant: Wakefield Shepherd is a self-taught jack-of-all-trades. He has no formal degree but will try to convince you that he has several. He has won three Olympic medals for vomitting.

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching Assistant: Siobhan, better known as Shiv and lesser known as Little Chernobyl, has made very few contributions to STW except for urinating on Dante's labcoat on more than one occasion. Her schooling is nebulous and unconfirmed. She dislikes Dante.