Dr. Borne is a Professor of Astrophysics and Computational Science at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax Virginia, and he is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Database Technologies Program at the University of Maryland University College where he teaches a graduate course in data mining. He is a senior member of both the U.S. National Virtual Observatory project and the planned Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project. Kirk received his B.S. summa cum laude in Physics at Louisiana State University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from Caltech. He subsequently worked at the University of Michigan, the Carnegie Institution of Washington in D.C., the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Raytheon, NASA-Goddard, George Mason University, and QSS Group Inc.
He currently lives with his wife Colleen in Baltimore. They have been attending Shore Leave conventions since 1992. His colleagues call him "Captain Kirk", even though he has never been an astronaut, nor has he played one on TV.