Physics

I am a former John Abbott student. I graduated from McGill University in Civil Engineering (B.Eng 2000) and Structural Engineering (M.Eng 2002). After working for 9 years at an engineering consulting firm where I was designing bridges, I joined the AMAZING physics department at John Abbott.

I have been at John Abbott College (JAC) since 2006 teaching a variety of Physics and Pathways courses, and began teaching the Introductory Astronomy course in 2016 including the coordination of Astronomy observing activities and equipment available for students to borrow. I am an active researcher in Physics & Science Education, having served and coordinated several provincial projects in Math & Science education across the Secondary, Cegep and University levels. I have also taught in Physics, Mathematics, Education and Exercise Science at Bishop’s University, in Physics at Carleton University and at Marianopolis College. I am also currently the public events coordinator for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) - Montreal Centre.

I was happily teaching physics at Bishop’s University (academic years 1996 and 1997 ) when fellow McGill graduates convinced me to join them in a physics simulation start-up company in Montreal. I ended up spending the next eight years building physics and collision detection software for all kinds of 3D environments, including robotic and vehicular simulators, video games running on PS2, XBox and GameCube, virtual actors, and 3D animation packages for the film industry.I still track these many forms of virtual reality through my involvement in Montreal ACM SIGGRAPH, a computer graphics organization that produces regular public events with invited speakers from industry and government, academic researchers, educators and artists exploring the digital domain.

I’m a John Abbott grad who went on to do my B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering at McGill University (where I was a member of the Mini Baja team) and my M.Eng in Aerospace Engineering at École Polytechnique (where I was project manager for a 21-student collaborative project with Bombardier, Bell Helicopter and Pratt & Whitney Canada). I worked for two years at Pratt & Whitney Canada within the Digital Engine program (evolving computer software towards the next generation of engineering design), before starting teaching part-time at John Abbott in the Engineering Technologies department in 2009. I joined the Physics department shortly thereafter and have continued to explore ways in which technology can be used to help students better engage with, and better grasp, the concepts taught in the sciences.

I started teaching at John Abbott in 2016. Prior to that, I got my Engineering masters and bachelor degrees at École Polytechnique in Montreal. I worked for Bombardier, General Electric, Alstom, Messier Bugatti, a French consulting company and the very famous École de voile de Lachine where I taught sailing. I've worked on planes, trains (metro and tram-train stations mostly) and X-ray machines.

After oscillating a bit between studying physics and engineering, I finally settled on engineering, completing a B. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering at McGill. Although doing all the math and physics involved in Engineering was lots of fun, I found explaining it to other people was even more fun, so I decided to become a teacher. I taught Math and Physics at various high schools in and around Montreal for about 15 years, and then came to Abbott in the fall of 2007.