Meet the Team

Timothy Sipkens is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia where he holds NSERC and Killam Postdoctoral research fellowships. His research is aimed at developing novel approaches to characterize soot morphology (Theme 4), focusing on the inversion techniques used to interpret tandem centrifugal partial mass analyzer (CPMA) and differential mobility analyzer (DMA) measurements. Simultaneous use of these devices allows one not only to distinguish between different populations of particles but also to determine how the properties of the particles are distributed in the aerosol as a whole. His research will consider Bayesian treatments of the problem, which have the capacity to greatly improve reconstructions of particle characteristics.

Tim received his master’s and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2014 and 2018, respectively. His graduate work with Dr. Kyle Daun examined various facets of the laser-induced incandescence (LII) technique, including its extension from soot to characterize engineered nanoparticles, such as silicon, iron, and molybdenum nanoparticles; detailed investigations of nanoscale cooling mechanisms using molecular dynamics (MD); and Bayesian treatments of the analysis.

Supervisors: Drs. Steven Rogak and Jason Olfert, cross-appointment at UBC & The University of Alberta

ResearchGate Profile:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Timothy_Sipkens