Allan Krill    Professor of Geology    PseudonumerologicVIP

I am a geologist, with a B.S. degree in Earth Science in 1976 from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Ph.D in Geology and Geophysics in 1980 from Yale University.  Both my wife and I are American, and live with our five children in Trondheim, Norway.    In 1988, I received a tenured appointment (signed by the King of Norway) as Professor of Geology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).   This allows me to do research on topics that I consider important, including work with number memorization techniques.

My interest in word play began in early childhood, hearing stories by Dr. Seuss.  My interest in remembering numbers began with my research on the age determination of rocks.  With the help of modern isotope technology, some minerals and rocks can "remember" their date of birth for a thousand million years.  I found that I needed some sort of "memory technology" to remember the many rock ages that had been determined.  I read several books on memory improvement, including The Memory Book, by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas (Ballantine Books).  I have now used the phonetic number code for over twenty years.

I began developing and teaching this number-memorization technique as a result of my teaching experiences at the university.   It is discouraging for a teacher to see students spend time and energy on memorizing things ineffectively.  Even worse, is to see students with so little confidence in their ability to remember facts and details, that they don't really try to learn them!  Students need tools and techniques to memorize and learn easily and effectively.  These techniques should ideally be taught to very young children, but it is not too late to learn them at the university.