I’m a PhD Candidate at the University of Saskatchewan studying the building blocks of matter. A theoretical physicist by trade, I look at quarks, gluons, and how they combine to form everything we see around us (as well as particles that perhaps we have yet to find). I also work at teaching undergraduate students the foundations of physics, ranging from Newton’s Laws to Quantum Mechanics. Though I love the thrill of original research, I find teaching is what grounds me and keeps me honest; it’s a puzzle in itself to effectively explain the complexity and mystery of the universe around us.
When I’m not teaching, programming, or researching, I’m probably in the kitchen tending to some new recipe, fermentation, or culinary experiment. I love good food and good drink of all kinds, and I’m always searching for new tastes and new cuisines. Whenever I travel, I usually try and seek out the most interesting and innovative coffee, beer, and cocktail culture, and frame my international wanderings around that. Lately I’ve been trying to do a better job of tracking my favourites.
The academic life is an inherently transient one as undergraduate degrees beget graduate degrees, and graduate degrees beget postdoctoral positions and careers outside of academia, all while floating from institution to institution. Sometimes you feel as if you’re constantly meeting new people as new students and new colleagues flood into your life, and other times you feel as if all your friends are moving onto other opportunities. But this is the transitory existence of a graduate student; friendships and relationships are made locally, but exist globally. I’m passionate about studying how nature works and how the universe as we know it has come to be. Time will tell where that may take me; life’s too short to do something you hate and the world’s too big to stay in one place.
I’m glad you’ve stayed to take a look, and I hope you’ll stick around to check out what I’m working on now. Whether you’re a scientist, science-enthusiast, or even if you have no interest in science, I hope that you’ll find something that interests you.