Normally when you call a person a “rocket scientist,” you’re kidding. When you call Ireland’s Dan ‘NukeTheFish’ Wilson a “rocket scientist,” however, you’re telling the truth. Fact.

“I have a Doctorate in Astrophysics, which I completed during my first two or three years as a poker pro,” Wilson, who just hit $2 million in career online tournament winnings, said. “Since I left university, I’ve been traveling with my girlfriend and playing wherever we decided to settle down for a few months.”

In the last two years, places Wilson has called home have included Galway, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia; Dublin, Ireland; and Edinburgh, Scotland, which he moved to last month. Say what you want, but his fairly nomadic lifestyle has seemed to pay dividends. Take last year, when he won and finished second in the PokerStars Sunday 500 for almost $100,000 combined, his two largest online MTT scores to date.

And earlier this year, Wilson hit it big in the live arena, taking down the Irish Open Main Eventfor $167,000, his second six-figure score ever after a deep run in the World Series of Poker Main Event two years ago.

“Shout out to all of the grinders living in Edinburgh,” he said. “I don’t know who lives here, but I want to find someone to grind with them from time to time, so PM me if you’re interested.”

“I originally wanted to pursue my career when I started my PhD, but by the time I finished I was making more money playing poker than most jobs a PhD would get me,” Wilson said. “So, I put science on the backburner for a few years. Maybe I’ll go back to it if online poker dries up.”

Wilson’s work involved collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) to model complex issues that arise in modern, state-of-the-art telescopes. He primarily worked on the Planck telescope, a space-based radio frequency satellite that’s looking into deep space for traces of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, which is a very weak signal pervading all of space today, but originated shortly after the “Big Bang.”

Yep, he’s a rocket scientist.

“I originally got a degree in physics with astrophysics, but when I graduated in 2008, the economic crash had just happened and Ireland was particularly screwed by it, so jobs were scarce, making it a somewhat natural choice to remain in academia and get a higher degree with more job prospects,” Wilson said. “Terahertz astrophysics was the specialist research area of my department and it was fascinating to me, so I jumped at the opportunity to work on such frontier physics.”

“Planck had already been one of ESA’s most promising missions and it was believed it could be the first telescope to measure tiny fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background signal called B-modes that had eluded every previous mission,” he said. “When found, these B-modes would once and for all prove a theory of how the universe formed. Being part of that hunt was exciting.”

According to Wilson, B-modes would have pointed to gravitational waves, “the holy grail of modern astrophysics. There is nothing more rewarding in science than the satisfaction of being the first to ever do, see, or find something. You can always say you were part of that. That’s where most scientists will tell you their hunger comes from. Knowing you’ve contributed something to furthering our knowledge as a species is a comfort when you do that kind of work. I relished it and will probably return to it again one day.”

Poker provides a different kind of reward. No knowledge furthering the human race will be derived, but Wilson values the freedom the game provides. And the money certainly doesn’t hurt.

“It’s the freedom of poker that I find most rewarding,” the Irishman said. “My girlfriend and I love to travel and this career gave me the means to do that rather than going straight into a 9-5 job out of college.”

As luck would have it, all his wife needs to do her job is a laptop and an internet connection, so the two can travel to virtually anywhere in the world. And, as he said, if the poker industry goes south, he’s certainly not out of a job.

“Having a doctorate opens a lot of doors even if you’ve been out of the game a while, so I’ll likely be able to wiggle my way back into the sciences or industry down the road if I need to,” he said.

Wilson can be found at #98 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings, 32 spots off his all-time high set last year. He’s the second-ranked player in Ireland and is a few thousand dollars away from hitting $1.3 million on PokerStars.