science

Will Zimmerman

Will Zimmerman is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Will Zimmerman rather than just read about it. In short: Dr. William "Will" Zimmerman is a main character and male lead of the Canadian fantasy-science fiction television series Sanctuary.

Key takeaways

Will Zimmerman belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Will Zimmerman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Will Zimmerman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Dr. William "Will" Zimmerman is a main character and male lead of the Canadian fantasy-science fiction television series Sanctuary. He is portrayed by Robin Dunne. Will is introduced in the series as an FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit forensic psychiatrist, who was recruited by Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), head of the Sanctuary Network, to become her recent protégé. Dunne was approached to appear on the series by director Martin Wood, whom he worked with before, but was initially reluctant to appear in the original web series. The second season of the show introduced more of a darkness to the character. In the third season, Will appears in a more leadership position, and becomes instrumental in the Hollow Earth story-arc. Critical reactions behind the character, and Dunne's portrayal, were generally positive reviews, with some television critics comparing Will to Stargate SG-1 character Daniel Jackson. Dunne's portrayal of Will earned him a Leo Award for "Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series" in 2010. He was nominated a further two Leo Awards in the same categories and a Constellation Award, in which he narrowly lost to Doctor Who actor David Tennant.

Character arc

Background Will Zimmerman's maternal relatives are said to have come from Dublin, Ireland. One of his known ancestors was Jack Zimmerman (Dunne), who served in the United States Army and was killed in action in Normandy during D-Day in 1944. When Will was a child, he was terrorized by a violent creature who killed his mother. However, Will was saved by Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), who captured it. In the web series, he was a victim of Bigfoot (Christopher Heyerdahl) before he worked as a butler in the Sanctuary; Bigfoot liked to scare little children. In his adult life, he worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), until he was fired for his outlandish theories. He since worked with the Old City Police Department as a forensic psychiatrist, though his co-workers do not take him seriously there either. Before the series began he had a girlfriend, Meg (Kandyse McClure), who broke up with him.

Season one The first season begins with Will investigating the deaths of two police officers; though the police believe they found the killer, Will believes there was a child in the apartment, but his theory was rebuked. He is later recruited by Helen Magnus to join her Sanctuary team, an organization who track down several abnormals around the world and give them refuge at one of their bases, and become her new protégé. She too believes there was a child, Alexei (Cainan Weibe), who killed his victims with an appendage when he feels scared. At the end of the pilot, Will eventually accepts his new position, having been promised "the adventure of many, many lifetimes." In "Warriors", his old friend Danny went missing, and he searches for him. He finds him but is captured and injected with the same drug as Danny to turn him into an Abnormal in a Fight Club-like organisation run by the Cabal, an underground organization who seek to control all abnormals, though he is eventually rescued and reverts to Human again. In the first-season finale, Will has a new love interest; Clara Griffin (Christine Chatelain), granddaughter of the late Nigel Griffin, Magnus' colleague; Clara shares his invisibility skills.

Season two In the season two premiere "End of Nights", Clara is killed by Cabal superabnormals before their defeat, which greatly affected Will. In an alternate future in the season two episode "Pavor Nocturnus", which takes place ten years into the episode's future where the world is overrun by zombie-like creatures after Magnus unknowingly unleashed a virus while curing her longevity, Will is depicted as the only living survivor of the Sanctuary Network. He did at some point, have a relationship with colleague Kate Freelander (Agam Darshi), and had a son, Magnus Zimmerman following the death of the alternate Magnus. He starts his own survivalist group and sacrifices himself in aiding the present Magnus to correct her mistake. While on assignment in Mumbai, in "Kali", Will becomes host to a Macri, a creature with a connection to Big Bertha, the most powerful abnormal on Earth. He has the Macri forcibly removed from Edward Forsythe, which leaves him fatally ill. Despite this, Will still maintains a telepathic connection to Bertha, who appears to him as the goddess Kali, and he manages to reach out to her and get her to stop her attacks after Magnus severs Forsythe's connection to her. However, Terrance Wexford (Paul McGillion) takes command of the Sanctuary Network, and attacks Bertha, causing her to turn on Will and create three tsunamis.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Will Zimmerman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Will Zimmerman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Will Zimmerman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Will Zimmerman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Will Zimmerman

In research: Will Zimmerman appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Will Zimmerman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Will Zimmerman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fictional American people of Irish descent, Fictional American police detectives, Fictional Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Will Zimmerman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Will Zimmerman” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Will Zimmerman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Will Zimmerman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Will Zimmerman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Will Zimmerman in simple terms?

Dr. William "Will" Zimmerman is a main character and male lead of the Canadian fantasy-science fiction television series Sanctuary.

Why does Will Zimmerman matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Will Zimmerman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Will Zimmerman.