Postdoctoral scholar Ken Wong was killed May 13 following an accident on Highway 401 near Woodstock.
Ken Wong
Physics Professor Martin Zinke-Allmang was a friend of Wong throughout his undergraduate and graduate career at Western – almost a decade. Zinke-Allmang shares his thoughts on this “talented scientist.”
An incredible number of people on this campus called Ken their friend. He was a friend to all of us in the truest way possible – unfailingly creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere with his contagiously radiant smile, yet tirelessly willing to help everyone in need of support in the most unselfish way imaginable.
Of all of those whose lives Ken touched in such a profound way owe him so much in turn. I am only distinct in that I go farthest back with him, almost an entire decade. What I was able to witness in those nine years was absolutely astonishing – a list of accomplishments so diverse it seems unbelievable it goes to the credit of a single person.
Everyone knew only one or two facets of his work, and got surprised when glimpsing the many other sides of his talents. Even his two Ph.D. supervisors had to sit together and carefully count the many peer-reviewed articles to which he contributed substantially enough to become a co-author.
He wrote five with me and I knew of three more in which he had been involved in Physics, and only then did we started to look at the ones he wrote and contributed to in Engineering.
Ken was great at bringing people together. During his time at Western, he connected people and ideas in three very distinct areas; the traditional science temple of Physics and Astronomy; the professionally oriented Biomedical Engineering program; and Medical Biophysics with its clinical interests.
He was a welcomed user in the Biotron, the Tandetron accelerator, the Nanofabrication Laboratory, Surface Science Western, and he used equipment in at least three other labs.
He gave presentations in the Centre for Chemical Physics, the Graduate Seminar in Medical Biophysics, at the annual workshops of the Western Institute of Nanomaterials Science, in the Physics and Astronomy Colloquium, and in the Faculty of Engineering – more places than most of us even can point to on a campus map.
However, work was only his second passion. The first place in his heart belonged to Vivienne, the young woman he had met in high school and married last September. Their dream of a fulfilling family life was taking shape.
Ken, the selfless helper of so many others had finally carved out a fitting path for himself, that of a promising career as a talented scientist with a versatile arsenal of skills and strong roots in a loving family.
He could have gone far in this world, far beyond all of us who feel blessed to have been allowed to accompany this extraordinary young man along important sections of his journey through life.