Doctor Gordon Freeman

A photo of Gordon in his battle-torn HEV MK. IV Suit.

**Dr. Gordon Freeman** is the protagonist of the *Half-Life* series. Freeman is a theoretical physicist, forced to defend himself and the human race in a conflict against hostile aliens and other enemies after a failed experiment causes a worldwide alien invasion.

In the process, Freeman becomes an almost legendary resistance hero, eventually rising to be one of the key leaders in the war against an inter-dimensional empire.

## Biography

A native of Seattle, Washington, Freeman harbors an early interest in theoretical physics, such as quantum mechanics and relativity. His earliest heroes are Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Richard Feynman.

He has no dependents and is a graduate of MIT, having earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. His thesis was titled *Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array* (the behavior of large stuff {Supraquantum Structures} relative and related to each other {Entanglement} after a very short duration {Mode-Locked} "Extremely Long Wavelength Pulse" by an arrangement {Array} of crystals with an atomic number greater than 92 {Transuranic}, without coming into physical contact with the structures in question {Induction}) (essentially about the teleportation of matter through the use of extremely dense elements).

After graduating from MIT, Gordon travels to Austria and observes a series of teleportation experiments conducted by the Institute for Experimental Physics in Innsbruck. Eventually, he becomes disappointed with the slow pace of teleportation research in academia and begins to search for a job outside the education sector.

By coincidence, Freeman's MIT mentor Dr. Isaac Kleiner has taken charge of a research project at a government-owned, integrated research facility known as the Black Mesa Research Facility and offers Freeman a job. He accepts, hoping that at least part of the immense funding would go towards civilian applications of astrophysics and quantum computing.

At the start of *Half-Life* (on May 16, 200-), Gordon Freeman is 27 years old, who has been working for a while at the Black Mesa Research Facility under a *"classified"* administrative sponsor. He owns a Level 3 Research Associate position, is accommodated in the Level 3 Dormitories in the Black Mesa North Wing, alone in room 309.

He is assigned to the Anomalous Materials department doing nuclear, subatomic, and quantum research. Despite having obtained a Ph.D. from the prestigious MIT, the laboratory work that the player does as Freeman (pressing a button and pushing a cart) does not require any intellectual expertise at all (Though a possibility is all of his intellectual expenses happened before the events of the game).

Barney Calhoun pokes fun at this in the beginning portion of *Half-Life 2* when Freeman performs similar "technical" assistance (pushing a switch and attaching a fallen plug back into a socket). Barney then goes on to joke that Gordon's MIT education "*really pays for itself.*"

During their time at the facility, Freeman and Calhoun would compete with each other to be the first to retrieve Dr. Kleiner's keys whenever he locked them in his office in Black Mesa (apparently a fairly regular occurrence) without resorting to conventional means. This is where Freeman learned to make use of ventilation shafts to infiltrate rooms and buildings. Indeed, Freeman and Calhoun crawled through numerous ventilation shafts in *Half-Life* and *Half-Life: Blue Shift,* respectively.