A local reception was held for our graduating classes on June 14, 2013.
Each post-graduate student was congratulated by their supervisor and was awarded an honorary departmental coffee mug.
The accomplishments and future goals of our undergraduate class of 2013 were also celebrated. This presentation was hosted by John de Bruyn and Clara Buma. Each undergraduate also received a departmental mug.
PhD in Astronomy from Western in 1989 and now professor of Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Jaymie Matthews (left in photo) celebrates the 10th anniversary of the MOST telescope, for which he is Mission Scientist.
MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars) is Canada’s first space telescope, is the size of a suitcase, and can best be described as having a striking resemblance to SpongeBob SquarePants.
PhD. candiate Arash Akbari-Sharbaf (right in photo) is shown receiving the Lillian Margaret and Walter David Jackson Scholarship in Physics from department Chair, Dr. Shantanu Basu (at left in photo).
Arash completed his MSc. under the supervision of Dr. Michael Cottam, and he is currently completing his PhD. under the co-supervision of Dr. Michael Cottam and Dr. Giovanni Fanchini.
Hoda Rashedi (photo) won one of two top prizes for poster papers (“Best Talent” award) at the IAU Symposium #297, “The Diffuse Interstellar Bands”, which was held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, from May 20-24, 2013.
Hoda’s poster paper was titled “Relating diffuse interstellar band strengths to line of sight properties”.
Jan Cami was one of three co-organizers and co-Chairs for this conference.
Also attending from Western and presenting an invited talk was Els Peeters, while contributed talks were given by Neil Bhatt, Elisabetta Micelotta and Jan Cami.
Prof. Peter Brown has been selected as the Distinguished Research Professor of the Faculty of Science for 2013-14.
Department Chair Dr. Shantanu Basu writes, “The DRP is awarded for significant one-time research opportunities. Peter is coordinating a worldwide effort amongst many consortia to analyze the recent meteor fireball over Chelyabinsk, Russia, and working with NASA, the European Space Agency, and other US government agencies.”
Dr. John R. de Bruyn continues in his term as “Director for Full Member” in the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and he has also just completed three years as CAP Councillor for South-West Ontario.