SENIOR PROFILE: Julien 'Chopz' Dumoulin-Smith

First things first: Julien Dumoulin-Smith, SEAS '07, doesn't go by Julien unless he's in trouble. Instead, you can call him "the hunchback of Butler." Or Chopz, the nickname he's had since he was 10 years old.

"It's based on the phrase 'chop chop.' I'm very much like, 'Alright, let's get it done.'" he explained.

An applied mathematics major, Chopz triple minored-in economics, political science, and environmental engineering-because he realized he had enough credits to do so. His different degrees all relate to his primary professional interest-energy.

He got hooked taking an environmental economics class his freshman year. He transferred from McGill University after that year because he said it wasn't intense enough. Since then, he has worked on climate change issues and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

"Butler has become my social scene ... I'm up in that joint so often," the self-described workaholic said. Not wanting an easy final semester, he took 21 credits this spring.

Chopz said some of his best Columbia memories came as an RA. "It's an excuse to be dorky," he remembered, calling his Carman floor the "wildest" and confessing to having proctored a few parties.

Chopz said he was "hot-headed" when he came to Columbia, spending most of his sophomore year participating in the campus ACLU. Now he spends much of his time planning activities for his "kids," recalling a particularly memorable trip to the park where he barbecued 90 hot dogs by himself.

In his free time, he has opened credit card accounts just to get free airline tickets (he's got five left), rode cross-country trains to California just to meet the people ("These are people who can't or won't fly, and you're stuck with them for three days"), and indulging in his slightly unhealthy addiction to day trading ("It's a real tool thing to do").

All this, and Chopz swears to "religiously getting eight hours of sleep a night."

He's spending seven weeks in Europe after commencement, traveling somewhere different every week. When he gets back, Chopz will work at UBS, where he said he hopes to pursue energy policy in some capacity later.

"I'm probably going to have to go by Julien during office hours, though," he conceded.