I was born and raised in Burlington, on the shores of Lake Ontario. My father was a physicist studying wind and waves for the Canadian government. My mom was a nurse. I was more keen on playing sports than studying.
I suppose it makes sense given the intersection of those three things that I ended up studying kinesiology at McMaster University. When there, I took math, computer science, and physics electives in addition to my core kinesiology courses. The union of these academic interests was biomechanics. And after volunteering in a biomechanics research lab, I was hooked on the subject and on research more generally.
Somehow, I convinced Rodger Kram at UC Berkeley to take a chance on me as a graduate student. I know it helped that he was a brand spanking new professor and had not yet honed his abilities to select graduate students. I first got my master's degree in human biodynamics in 1997, using simulated reduced gravity to test ideas about how to compare animals of different sizes. I was not sure I wanted to keep doing research, so I took a year to be a camp counsellor again, and to backpack around Europe. That distance helped me realize that while intense at times, I loved the research process.
So I went back to Berkeley to work with Rodger again, switched departments to Integrative Biology, and started a collaboration with Art Kuo who became like a second Ph.D. advisor. I also expanded on my largely experimental work during my master's to include more modeling and simulation, and also added a bit more exercise physiology. This work was on what it is about the way we walk that determines how much energy we use.
I got my Ph.D. in 2001 and then went to work with Keir Pearson at the University of Alberta to study the control of locomotion. I chose this postdoc both because Keir was an amazing mentor but also because I felt that I needed training in motor control because movement is both biomechanics and control.
In 2005 I came to Simon Fraser University where I am now a Professor in Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology and in Engineering Science, and my work spans comparative neuromechanics, human movement science, and wearable technology.
In addition to my academic work, I have founded two companies: Bionic Power, which develops energy-harvesting and exoskeleton technologies, and Control Freak, which develops music-regulated exercise technology. I have also served in advisory roles for Nike, Stanford's Mobilize Center, and Kwantlen University's School of Design. My newest role is scientific co-director of SFU's WearTech Labs.