In Search of a Geek-Mate by Valentine's Day?

This time of year, many single people cringe at the commercial attention given to Valentine's Day.

As media outlets are consumed by ads for floral and jewelry shops, Hallmark cards and cozy, romantic restaurants, some singles just want to crawl into their caves and resurface on Feb. 15.

But a new list by Match.com gives nerds a reason to rejoice in matters of the heart.

Thanks to an abundance of brainiac biotechnology jobs in the Interstate 270 Technology Corridor, Rockville has more than its share of smart, well-employed nerds.

So much so that Rockville placed 10th on the list of the Top 10 Cities to Date a Nerd, according to Match.com.

To compile its list, Match.com researched its membership database to identify the top 10 cities with the highest-educated Match members.

Sunnyvale, Calif., situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, is No. 1, according to Match.com.

"The nerd-factor of some cities might seem obvious because of the brainy companies and schools that are stationed there," Match said in its article.

Cambridge, Mass., the No. 2 city, is home to Harvard University, while No. 6 Ann Arbor, Mich., is home to the University of Michigan, which employs 30,000 highly-educated residents—or about 26 percent of the city's population, according to the report.

Rockville has Maryland company on the list—Columbia comes in at No. 8.

Speaking of Rockville’s “nerd herd” brethren in Howard County, HoCo Connect blogger Duane St. Clair, offers an explanation for why nerds are in.

"Somehow, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have made being a 'nerd' cool," St. Clair writes. "As someone who has three family members employed at [the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab], I think that the old stereotype of someone who has mechanical pens in a plastic pocket sleeve … is far outdated."

So, Rockville nerds, if you're unattached, you've got a week to find your geek-mate by Valentine's Day.

And who knew you had such rich and fertile hunting ground in which to do it?