2020 – 2022
Master's Degree in Physics
Université de Sherbrooke
Combinatorial optimisation with Tensor Networks.
Advised by Pr. Stefanos Kourtis.
Hello there!
I'm Sam, a physicist and programmer based in Montréal. I turn complex problems into elegant solutions — whether through optimization algorithms or tools that streamline creative workflows.
My path has taken me from tensor network research to VFX pipeline development, and I'm now looking to apply my skills to new technical challenges.
Education
2015 – 2019
Bachelor's Degree in Physics
Université de Sherbrooke
Coop program.
Experience
Employment
2023 – 2025
Pipeline Technical Director
Squeeze Animation Studio
Responsible for writing and maintaining packages and plugins for artist workflows. Focused on tools and interfaces for the editorial team.
2022
Data Scientist (Internship)
Quantolio
Developed a data aggregator system for enrichment of financial portfolio strategies.
2019 – 2021
Teaching Assistant
Physics Department - Université de Sherbrooke
Assisted in teaching Mathematical Physics and Physics of Waves classes.
2019
Museum Guide
Nature and Science Museum of Sherbrooke
Responsible for guided tours for groups of all ages and coordination of popularization events.
Research Internships
2019
Research Assistant (Internship)
Physics Department - Université de Sherbrooke
Developed and trained Deep Learning models for analytic continuation of response functions in materials. Utilized C++ programs for data generation and exact analytic continuation.
Advised by Pr. André-Marie Tremblay.
2018
Research Assistant (Internship)
Physics Department - Université de Sherbrooke
Developed and characterized Tensor Network methods for condensed matter physics. Authored a review article.
Advised by Dr. Thomas E. Baker.
2017
Research Assistant (Internship)
Victoria University of Wellington - New Zealand
Performed experimental characterization and development of superconductor materials. Developed a program for finding critical phase transition points from magnetic measurements.
Advised by Dr. Shen V. Chong.
2017
Research Assistant (Internship)
Physics Department - Université de Sherbrooke
Maintained and documented simulation codes using the renormalization group for low-dimensionality materials.
Advised by Pr. Claude Bourbonnais.
Projects
Recent Projects
XGBoost predictive model for energy consumption time series with feature engineering and hyperparameter optimization.
2025
Tic-Tac-Toerminal
C++ tic-tac-toe game with modular architecture and terminal interface. Currently porting to Qt for graphical interface.
2024
This website
Built with pure HTML, CSS and JavaScript!
Master's Degree Projects
Note: These projects show how my code has improved over time.
Solver of the Maximum-Clique problem (equivalent to Independent Set problem) for random graphs using my TNTools.
2021
LDPC Decoder
Classical LDPC decoding algorithm using my TNTools.
2021
LDPC Code Generator
Lightweight utility for generating semi-optimized random LDPC codes.
2020-2021
TNTools
A small one file set of tools for treating combinatorial optimization problems with tensor networks. These were built with combinatorial optimization problems in mind.
Outreach
I enjoy making science accessible. Here are some science communication projects I've created over the years. Most of them are in French.
2025
secasserlebecyk.com
Personal science communication blog where I explore various physics and mathematics topics in an accessible way.
Educational video exploring the physical principles applied in video game engines. [FR]
An introduction to Karl Popper's falsifiability criterion. [FR]
A brief review of Bechgaard salts and their superconducting properties. [FR]
Beyond code
I am Sam. I practice and teach improv, I like to go for a run from time to time. I sometimes draw doodles.
I partook in conferences and wrote articles during my studies. I have also been a tutor, teaching first year students. I left after my master degree to explore the dev world. To me, math and physics are a language to dissect and explain the world, and as any other language, it feels quite boring to be speaking it alone.
I particularly like how images convey moods and information. That is a reason why I joined the world of Animation/VFX after my education in physics.