Steven A. Kornic was born and raised in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.  Whilst in high school, he worked on a sheep and dairy farm that inspired him to go into veterinary medicine.  In 1991 he began his career at the University of Guelph in biological sciences.  After completing his third year in biological sciences, a minor in chemistry directed Steve into chemistry (inspired in good part by Dr. Caesar Senoff, Dr. Gordon Lang and Dr. Albert Woon-Fat) and in 1996, he completed his B.Sc. with a major in biological sciences and equivalent major in chemistry.

For the next year and a half, he worked on his Masters thesis supervised by Dr. Elmer Alyea at the University of Guelph in the area of metal oxide catalysis.  It was while doing his Masters that Steve became interested in the ins and outs of instruments and learned how to properly maintain them; especially the bank of gas chromatographs that he used to analyze his product streams during the gas phase catalysis studies.  Steve completed his Masters in July 1998 and went to work with Dr. Mark Baker in September 1998, this time in the area of electrochemistry, researching the effects of zeolite films on electrochemical reactions with respect to their use as a molecular filter to control product specificity.  During his time in the lab, Steve was responsible for the maintenance and operation of the internal computer network within the lab, the Bruker FT Raman Spectrometer, several potentiostats and even an old Nicolet 510 FTIR spectrometer.  At one point, he was afforded a fully paid trip to Tennessee to tour Princeton Applied Research to evaluate instruments incoming to the newly formed Electrochemical Technology Centre.

In 2002, Steve began teaching undergraduate courses at the University of Guelph in the areas of Instrumental Analytical and Introductory Chemistry, which led to his appointment as an Assistant Professor in July 2003 for two years at Wilfrid Laurier within the Department of Chemistry while finishing his thesis.  While there, he taught in the areas of Introductory, Analytical, Organic and Inorganic Chemistry at the first, second and third year levels.  In June 2005, Steve, his contract complete, left WIlfrid Laurier to come to his current position at McMaster University in the Chemistry Department, a combination of: General Instrument Specialist, Manager of the revitalized Combustion Analysis and Optical Spectroscopy Facility and 2^nd year Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Lab Co-ordinator.  Steve is also under the umbrella of the NMR Facility at McMaster University, aiding in the maintenance of their 8 NMR magnets and working closely with many of their clients.  He completed his PH.D in November 2005.

Steve’s expertise in spectroscopic methods, developed in having to maintain the instruments in his labs during his graduate student days, has been an asset to the Chemistry Department and is often called upon to analyze challenging samples, aid in the acquisition of new instruments, and maintaining and upgrading current instruments.  Currently he serves as the Chair of the Facilities Committee, and is a member of both the Chemistry Department Safety Committee and the EOHSS Laser Safety Committee.  In his spare time, Steve reads books on many topics, attends instrument manufacturer’s seminars to keep up to date, and regularly tours the Niagara Peninsula looking for those off of the beaten track wineries not on the wine maps.  Currently he is working on some writing projects that he hopes to get published in the future.

If visiting the department, feel free to stop by his office and chat for a bit.