About me - Jeff (J.A.) Secker

I was born in northern Ontario and grew up in Parry Sound, Ontario, on the shore of Georgian Bay. I completed an Honours B.Sc. degree in Applied Physics from the University of Waterloo. I have M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics and Astronomy from McMaster University, for which my research focussed on globular cluster systems, galaxy formation and the cosmological distance scale. I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Washington State University for three academic years, where I conducted research into galaxy formation using the ARC 3.5-m telescope at Apache Point Observatory, taught courses in astronomy and astrophysics, supervised undergraduate and graduate students, and was in charge of the campus observatory (the Jewett Observatory). Among other courses, I developed and taught an upper-year course, “The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.” I have worked as a research scientist in Ottawa, Ontario, since the summer of 1998. I have published the results of my astronomy, astrophysics and remote sensing research in scientific journals, conference proceedings and books. In addition to writing and science, I am a music lover, stereo enthusiast and vinyl record collector. I live in Ottawa with my spouse, scientist (Ph.D.) Julie, our three daughters and Labrador Retriever. Emily Jayne and the Kairos Codex is my first novel.

The image below shows a subset of my academic family tree, courtesy of the Astronomy Genealogy Project (AstroGen) https://astrogen.aas.org/front/searchdetails.php?agnumber=7929/ Dr. William E. Harris was the advisor for my Ph.D. studies at McMaster University. Dr. Rene Racine was the advisor for Dr. Harris’s Ph.D studies at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Sidney van den Bergh was the advisor for Dr. Racine’s Ph.D. studies at the University of Toronto.

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Author photo by Julie Lefebvre