Ray Thornton grew up in the border town of Dundalk, Ireland, where his family grows cereals and potatoes on a farm just south of the line that divides the country politically. It was the conflict there that initially aroused his interest in public service and international relations, an interest that has seen him campaign for progressive political causes from Ireland to London and back to Virginia USA. Ray is hugely excited to work at the Breakthrough Institute, and hopes it will enable him to apply some of his insights to the most pressing problems in National Security policy in the USA. Ray is not happy to be leaving New Jersey for the summer, but has consoled himself with the old proverb that absence makes the heart grow fonder.