Meet the Staff - Steve Wilson

So I like what I do cuz I like fixing things, I like kind of tinkering, I like learning about how things work.

Taking things apart... figure out what's wrong... figure out how it works... put it back together and hopefully better and maybe more functional than it was or it has been.

I enjoy building things... kind of design and inventing.

So my name is Steve Wilson.

I work at the University of Guelph in the Physics Department in the Physics Workshop.

I manage the Physics Workshop and so that entails organizing the jobs and the people and kind of making sure projects are progressing and that they get done and get done on time and hopefully within budgets.

So a typical day is coming into work. I'll check my emails. Do the things everybody does then we start looking at jobs and what needs to get done that day.

Besides managing I also work in the shop and so there's two employees that work under me and that's Mario and Ian and so they're building and modifying and and doing things to research equipment and so typically I'll get sucked into that as well I'll be building and fixing things alongside them.

Okay so one of the things I've been involved with in the last year and a bit now has been the Observatory and telescopes.

This is something that's always intrigued me and I've really had a lot of interest in doing but I've never been able to get involved with this. We cleaned them up, we kind of got them back up and running and oiled them and kind of brought them back into what their useful form and so they're a lot of fun to play with.

One of the nice things we'd been able to do with the funding we received is we were able to buy new telescopes. So I got to go shopping for telescopes, which was super fun.

So we've been able to learn and grow and kind of be able to get a lot of exposure to different telescopes.

This one has been an absolute joy to work on and it's super involved and learning about how to calibrate it how to align it, the optics, and just how to use it.

What lenses and everything has been a... it's been an uphill battle but we've we've got it working really well and it's a fantastic outreach tool.

I think that the kids really enjoy driving it around and there is nothing I think that can really replace that at this point. Being able to kind of take a telescope and uh put it on the Moon and then just start cruising around around... it's super fun for them and I think it's fun for me and we have had a lot of fun looking at Saturn and Venus and and all kinds of fun stuff.

So I don't remember necessarily what I wanted to be as a kid um... I can kind of do a bit of an origin story.a

Anyway, so, I grew up on a farm and so we were always creating... building... designing. There were no budgets on anything, just what you had laying around and so that's always been ingrained in me.

To kind of take things apart, figure it out, be inquisitive... learn.

The physics stuff's a little more in depth and we have to spend a few more conversations to kind of understand what's going on but it's super fun.

So one of the things I really like about the Department is they've really allowed me to kind of explore some interests or things that I have within my role as a workshop supervisor within the shop.

So whether it's rebuilding vacuum pumps and learning all about vacuum systems, exploring the astronomy side of it, or all of the anything I need to kind of learn and do they're 100% behind me.

So that I can kind of bring that to work and to use those skills in other things. Working closely with research groups to kind of not just to build the equipment but to kind of troubleshoot it and then to get results and then see what those results are and to kind of feel part of that group was super fun.

One of the things that I've picked up over the years is the Physics Corn Roast.

So this year will be the 65th Annual Corn Roast.

So the Corn Roast used to be out at Jim Stevens farm and so for many, many, many years they had it out at the farm it was a fantastic experience. We'd go and grab some wood, throw it on the ground, light a fire and boil and and have some corn.

We've had to move it in town so now have it at the Riverside Park. We still roast corn.

It's an opportunity for the entire Department to get together kind of celebrate that last day of summer and the first day of classes coming up quickly and it gives us an opportunity to get together.

Play some games and enjoy each other's company.

It's been a great experience and it's a lot of fun for the grad students and for me.