Biography

Born in Glendale, California, in 1986, 22-year-old “Kit,” as he is known to all, is the son of K. C. Colwell, a 1st assistant director in film, and Rebecca Ravenshaw, a former opera singer and current art gallery owner.

He is a graduate of Bonita High School in La Verne, California. There he distinguished himself by taking and passing 14 advanced placement (AP) tests. He completed his undergraduate degree program at U.C. Berkeley in 2008 with a double major in physics and mathematics and now attends a graduate program in physics at U.C. San Diego. His focus and career goals include new energy research, development and implementation, as well as applications of advanced mathematics to theoretical physics.

His grandfather, Dr. Carter Colwell, entered the University of Chicago at 14. He went abroad for his master’s in English literature from Cambridge University, England, at age 18. A further Ph.D. in English earned him the chair of the English department of Stetson University.

Kit’s great-grandfather, Dr. Ernest Cadman Colwell, was a former president of the University of Chicago and vice president of Emory University. He is listed in Who’s Who in the World of Religion for his ancient Greek translations of the Bible. He went on to help found the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California.

Kitran’s mother, singer Rebecca Ravenshaw, later would marry Viennese-born Wagnerian opera conductor Henry Holt. Also a nationally recognized arts educator, Holt passed away in 1997. Kit began piano lessons at age five. He attended the complete “Ring” cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, with the Arizona Opera when he was nine years old. He developed interests in paleontology, architecture, the natural world, and foreign languages, which he maintains to this day.

His maternal grandfather, E. J. Wilson, was a logistics coordinator and heat tile specialist on the first Columbia Shuttle mission with NASA at Cape Canaveral in 1982. E. J. is also a WWII Air Force veteran. Kit’s uncle, Dr. Joshua Colwell, is an astrophysicist who has taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder and now teaches at the University of Central Flordia.

A few interesting highlights of Kit’s early life include:

  • 1993: 2nd grade Highland Oaks Elementary, Arcadia, California - was asked to teach 1st graders a unit on labeling organs of the human body
  • 1995: Catching, cooking, and eating a piranha in Manaus, Brazil during his dad’s film shoot of the movie Anaconda
  • 1997: Designing and contributing a virtual layout in 3-D format of the city of Moscow on the internet
  • 1997-2003: Received Certificate of Merit in Piano Recital (Levels 1-6)
  • 1998: Received “Most Dedicated Actor” Award in Clifton Middle School drama
  • 1998: Attended the University of Virginia Summer Gifted Program
  • 1999: Second place in Region R Scholastic Bowl, LA County
  • 1999: Attended West Virginia Wesleyan Summer Gifted Program
  • 2000: Recipient of $500 Ramona Middle School Science Scholarship
  • 2001-2004: President’s Award for Academic Excellence
  • 2002: Collecting, cataloging and gifting the largest ever entomology collection in the school to Bonita High School, La Verne, California
  • 2002-2003: Recipient of $1000 Governor’s Scholars Award
  • 2002-2004: Took 14 Advanced Placement Exams in high school: Art History (4), Biology (5), Calculus AB (5), Calculus BC (5), Chemistry (3), English Language (5), English Literature (5), Environmental Science (5), U.S. Government and Politics (4), Physics B (5), Physics C (Mechanics: 5, Electromagnetism: 4), Psychology (5), U.S. History (5), World History (5)
  • 2003: 2nd Place in Los Angeles County Academic Olympiad (Mathematics)
  • 2003 SAT/SAT II scores: Quantitative: 800, Verbal: 760, Writing: 660, Physics: 800, Math II: 800
  • 2003-06: Tutored peers for SAT, AP Exams, lower division math/physics
  • 2003: National Merit Scholarship Finalist
  • 2004: Volunteer Pleistocene fossil cleaning in paleontological laboratory of the Raymond M. Alf Museum, Claremont, CA
  • 2004: Life Member of California Scholarship Federation

In addition, he has interests in:

  • Fencing: 3rd generation fencing and swordsmanship skills
  • Cooking: Loves international cuisine and the languages that go with it. Likes to prepare Lobster Thermidor, Hungarian goulash, Russian beef stroganoff and fettuccini alfredo while thinking about math and physics
  • Historical Role Models: Thomas Jefferson, a true Renaissance man; Albert Einstein, a man not afraid to think outside the box; Charles Darwin, a reasonable iconoclast; and Nikola Tesla, brilliant inventor.
  • Being a Linguistics Dilettante: Has done independent study in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Russian, Italian, Arabic, and Spanish, with courses taken in French and German at the high school and college levels
  • World Travel: Has visited Brazil, the Czech Republic, and all over the United States
  • Energy!: Has done research on organic photo-voltaic morphology optimization; strives for an inexpensive, renewable power industry integrating many different sources; wishes to see emission-free electric cars replace existing fleets around the world in the near future