While in graduate school, Ken Cecire found that his greatest satisfaction was a teaching assistant in undergraduate introductory courses. Upon receiving an MA in Physics at City College, New York in 1981, Ken became a high school physics teacher. After several years of summer research at Jefferson Lab, Ken left the classroom in 1999 and moved to Hampton University to join the staff of the newly formed QuarkNet, a U.S. program to bring particle physics research to high school teachers and students. Ken was introduced to International Masterclasses during a visit to CERN in 2006.

Ken was impressed with International Masterclasses and how they engaged students and teachers with actual experimental particle physics data. He then helped organize the first masterclass in the U.S. and began working with IPPOG to coordinate a growing U.S., Fermilab, and QuarkNet IMC effort.

Ken co-coordinates International Masterclasses and continues in QuarkNet at the University of Notre Dame. He is responsible for World Wide Data Day, a simplified masterclass that teachers can run in their own classrooms, and has helped introduce neutrino physics masterclasses to IMC.