Serge D'Alessio is a classic example of a victim of circumstances.
He initially had no intention of pursuing an academic career.
In high school Serge enjoyed the technical courses such as machine shop and drafting
just as much as he did the science courses. In fact, his plans were
to embark in an apprenticeship as a machinist after completing high school.
Thanks to his flawed back, he failed to meet the company's standards
and thus decided to continue on to grade 13. The rest is history.

Serge's first love was physics.
He completed his undergraduate and master's degrees in Engineering Physics at McMaster University.
Following this he took a one year appointment to teach physics at Okanagan College
(now known as Okanagan University College) in Kelowna.
He then continued his graduate studies in Applied Mathematics at The University of Western Ontario
and completed his doctorate in 1993 (he actually defended his Ph.D. on April Fool's day believe it or not!).

Serge then went on to do a postdoc at the University of Alberta.
It was there that he met his lovely wife Lis (and her daughter Anna).
In 1996 he joined the Canadian Centre for Climate in Victoria as a Visiting Fellow.
There he got involved in turbulence modelling of the upper ocean.

Finally, in 1997 Serge joined the Dean's Office in the Math Faculty at the University of Waterloo
(where he hopes to remain until he gets old and grey!).
Serge was awarded tenure in 2003 (ten years after earning his Ph.D.) and lived happily ever after.
Although Serge may not take himself seriously, he does take his teaching and research seriously.

Other interests that Serge enjoys include drumming and the following outdoor activities:
walking, jogging and cycling.

In the past Serge has taken part in several bicycle trips, running races and even dualathons (run + cycle).
His adopted attitude has always been to complete, not to compete.
His greatest physical achievements include a bicycle trip from Hamilton (his home town) to Vancouver,
the completion of a 30 km race (known as Around the Bay Run in Hamilton),
and a personal best time of just over 2 hours in a dualathon (10 km run + 40 km cycle).

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