Professor overcomes leukemia, deafness
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 09/17/2009
Aldren Heuring | Staff Reporter
Astronomy professor Ian Shipsey stands next to a silicon camera, part of the Large Hadron Collidor in Switzerland.
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As a boy in London, Ian Shipsey never expected he would come this far.
Today Shipsey is a distinguished professor of astronomy at Purdue. He has worked on Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider, defeated leukemia and deafness, and was the first member of his family to attend college.
“I’m very lucky,” says Shipsey. “If I wasn’t I would never have survived to today or do any of the things I’ve done.”
Shipsey’s interest in science began at a young age. He learned all he could about the stars, watched stargazer shows on television and read every astronomy book in his local library.
“The host of the astronomy program I watched always said on the show, ‘If you want to be an astronomer you have to get a physics degree.’ At the time I didn’t know what physics was, but I wanted to get that degree.”
Shipsey passed his entrance exam at London University and worked toward his degree. “After two years of college, I got bored of physics and decided to take two years off and do some other things.” He worked for a newspaper one year and worked at a charity for the homeless the next. “I learned a lot about people working at the charity,” Shipsey said. “The world is not a fair place and if you have something, you have to appreciate it.”
After he returned to London University, Shipsey finished his degree and got his Ph.D. in Particle Physics at Edinburgh University in Scotland. While researching for his degree in Switzerland he met his wife-to-be, Daniela.
“She was a student from Italy, a friend of a friend. We really liked each other, fell in love, but then she went to the States to finish her degree. For two years we saved up so that we could visit each other every six months.”
Shortly after their marriage, Shipsey was diagnosed with acute mylegoneous leukemia.
“At the time, almost nobody survived leukemia,” Shipsey said. “But the first time I met my doctor, he came into the room, surrounded by other doctors and students, took me by the hand, and said, ‘I will make you well.’ And I believed him immediately.”
Shipsey was able to beat the leukemia, but the treatment, a harsh round of chemotherapy and antibiotics, took his hearing. “I had accepted a professorship at Purdue just before the diagnosis,” Shipsey said. “They were kind enough to keep me after all that happened, but I did not teach for three years after the treatment.”
In the meantime, Daniela gave birth to a daughter, Francesca. Shipsey started teaching at Purdue in 1993.
“I was very nervous that day, because I had never taught in the American school system and I wasn’t sure if I could,” he said. “I walked into the classroom and told my students I was completely deaf. As it turned out, that was one of the best things I could have said to them. My students voted me Professor of the Year that semester. I suppose saying something like that sort of knocks you off a pedestal. Instead of lectures we were having chats three times a week, but the kids learned a lot.”
Finally, after more than 10 years of silence, Shipsey received cochlea implants. The devices brought back his hearing and for the first time he was able to hear his daughter speak. “She has a wonderful voice,” said Shipsey. “In fact she is training to be an opera singer. When you hear her voice, it sends shivers down your spine, and you will cry because of how beautiful it is.”
Through every hardship he has faced, Shipsey has never stopped working. He has led several cutting-edge research projects at Purdue, including the construction of a camera used in the Large Hadron Collider, which replaced the atom smasher he worked on as a graduate student. Currently, he and a team of students are building the Large Synoptic Survey telescope.
Tony Coiro, a sophomore on the research team, said the telescope will be the most advanced in the world.
“This thing will see more of the universe than anyone ever has,” Coiro said. The secret, he added, is the huge amount of photographic data the telescope can store, all of which will be available to the public.
“Everything we’re doing with Ian is things that have never been done before,” Coiro said. “He is very smart but very funny, and he never makes you feel dumb or tries to show how smart he is. Working with him is a blast.”