Background
Hill was born in 1939 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Hill was born in 1939 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
He attended the American elementary school in Guadalajara until high school, whereupon he attended Upper Canada College in Toronto, Canada.
In the late 1970s, he discovered the phenomena of photosensitivity in optical fiber and has worked extensively in its applications. He first demonstrated Fiber Bragg gratings and their applications in optical communication and optical sensor systems Further areas of his discovery and innovation include the phase mask technique for grating fabrication, fiber grating dispersion compensators, and wavelength selective fiber filters, multiplexers and demultiplexers.
This field of research has led to the ability to create high speed fiber optic networks as well as many other communication applications that have revolutionized the telecommunications industry.
Hill pursued a B.Eng (1963), M.Eng (1965) as well as a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Physics (1968) from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He is also a Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada.
Upon completing his Doctor of Philosophy in 1968, Hill worked for the Government of Canada"s Defense Research Telecommunications Establishment (DRTE) as a research scientist Later that year, the DRTE was converted to the Communications Research Centre (Cyclic Redundancy Check).
At Cyclic Redundancy Check, he continued as a research scientist before working as a Group leader in Optical Data Storage and Signal Processing (1970–1975), Manager of Optical Communications (1975–1985), Director of Optical Communications (1985–1992) as well as Principal Scientist (1992–2000).
In 2000, Hill left Cyclic Redundancy Check and was appointed to be the Director of Research at Nu-Wave Photonics/Zenastra Photonics Incorporated, operating in optical circuit and network design and manufacturing. In 2001, Hill joined OZ Optics Limited, a supplier of optical products for optical networks, as a part of their research team