Ken playing at Slainte

Ken Sills

Lecturer

Department of Physics and Astronomy
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
L8S 4M1

Office:  ABB-101
Office Hours:  Monday 10:30am-11:30am, Tuesday 11:30am-12:30pm

Phone:  (905) 525-9140 x26116
FAX:    (905) 546-1252 
E-mail: ksills@mcmaster.ca
Areas of interest:  Physics Education, Instrumentation 


Teaching:

Physics 1BB3

ELM appears to be working now.


Who I am:

The first 18 years of my life were spent in Windsor, Ontario. Most of this time was spent playing musical instruments, the rest was devoted to avoiding being in class. I decided in grade 12 that I would go to university to play trumpet. Then I got my wisdom teeth pulled out. With that went all feeling in my lower lip. So much for the trumpet thing.

Now in grade 13 (back when there was grade 13), I was already determined to go to university with my friends. Not much for reading through long books, I opened the undergraduate calendar and chose the first thing that interested me. Astronomy. Sounded neat.

Touring a grand total of three universities, I made my decision to go to University of Western Ontario based on the fact that they had two on-campus observatories. It still amazes me how little guidance we give to students when they are making these important decisions. There could be no worse metric upon which to base a decision. Luckily, the experience turned out to be a positive one. I met my future wife, and learned a lot about how to learn. In 1993, I graduated with a B.Sc. in Honours Astronomy.

During my undergraduate degree, I had the opportunity to work on research over the summers. This research exposed me to the work of David Guenther, a man who my undergraduate research advisor respected greatly. When I heard that David Guenther was going to be taking a faculty position at St. Mary's University, I immediately applied to do my M.Sc. in Astronomy there. Unfortunately, my future wife was going to Yale University in Connecticut to do her graduate work.

In 1995, I moved to New Haven, Connecticut to be with my now fiancee. I enjoyed my work at St. Mary's University, but wanted to do something that I felt would help mankind on a shorter timescale than studying nonlinear pulsations of stars in open clusters. I took a position as a research associate at Advanced Fuel Research, a small R&D company in East Hartford, Connecticut. The company was developing Fourier Transform Infra Red spectrometers for use in continuous emission monitoring, as well as a technique to use x-ray spectroscopy to characterise the chemical matrix of soils contaminated with heavy metals. In other words, the company was developing technologies to clean up the environment. It was a very positive experience, and it was the place where I learned the majority of my instrumentation skills, especially LabView programming.

In 1998, I followed my wife to Ohio for her first post-doctoral position. Ohio State University has a large group of people working on astronomical instrumentation, and they convinced me to come back to astronomy and do a Ph.D. in Astronomical Instrumentation. It was here that I learned real-time programming in C on a linux kernel, as well as interprocess and network communications and imaging techniques.

But, after the birth of my daughter in 1999, I decided that the appropriate thing for a father to do was to get the highest paying job he can. I had clearly been living in the U.S.A. for too long. Many telecommunications companies in the area were excitedly trying to hire me, only to be blocked by Immigration. After my family was violently turned back by American immigration officials at the Detroit-Windsor border for having an incorrect word on my job offer letter, we decided that life in the United Kingdom would be a change for the better.

It was. In 2001, my wife, my daughter and I moved to lovely Leicester, England. My wife worked at the University of Leicester, and I worked at Ericsson Telecommunications in the software R&D group. We developed software for the internet backbone switches that this very connection might be using. It was a terrific experience. Great, warm people. A beautiful city with a thriving downtown. We were looking at buying a house when my wife was offered a permanent position at McMaster University. Just hours away from all of our extended family.

In 2002, after only 7 months of living in England, we moved to Hamilton. Refusing to be part of the parking lot known as "commuting to Toronto for a good job", I started Intelliscience Instrumentation, Inc. and began to do contract development of scientific instrumentation. At the same time, McMaster University was looking for someone to teach a section of their introductory physics course, Physics 1B03. These courses are small sections where you could get to know your students by name, and even get a chance to talk to them about life. It sounded like it would be a great experience. It was, and my students thought so too. My student evaluations were excellent, and this made the Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy think that keeping me around would be a good idea. So now I am a faculty member charged with developing tools and techniques for increasing student interest in first-year physics.

In my after-hours time, I am either playing with my two daughters, providing consulting services, or playing with my cover band "Skirmish" in bars.

If you want to come out and see up play, join our Facebook group or check out our web site!