[photo: Chair of Physics and Astronomy Dr. Shantanu Basu addresses the audience]

The official re-opening ceremonies for the newly renovated Physics and Astronomy Building took place on Friday, November 29, 2013.

The event was hosted by Western’s Faculty of Science, and took place on two levels of the building’s bright new atrium.

The stage ceremonies were hosted by Marilyn Steinberg, Director of Communications for the Faculty of Science.

Invited speakers for the event were Janice Deakin, Western’s Provost and V.P. Academic, Dean of Science Charmaine Dean, Chair of Physics and Astronomy Shantanu Basu, and Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, Deb Matthews.

On hand for the event were representatives of the architects and builders who were responsible for the renovations. Also present were many deans from across Western’s campus, as well as many current faculty, staff, and students, along with alumni, retired faculty and staff and visitors. In addition there was a large contingent of students from Blyth Academy in attendance.

Unveiled by Charmaine Dean was a superb promotional video which sketched out the history of the Department, and highlighted the building transformation resulting from the renovations, as well as highlighting the diverse and world-leading science that is performed by members of the Department.

Shantanu Basu praised the local renovations organizing committee, which included past chair John de Bruyn, and also paid a special tribute to renovations manager and co-ordinator Phin Perquin.

Shantanu Basu made an announcement regarding new student internships that have been set up between local technology companies and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western.

Following the formal opening ceremonies, guests were invited for refreshments and to mingle with research groups from within the Department, as well as three key technology companies from London, as well as partners in the new student internship initiative. These companies are Cimtec (Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization), OCI Vacuum Microengineering, and ScienceTech.

Tours of some of the newly re-designed science labs in the building, as well as the machine shop, and glassblowing shop, were also part of the day’s agenda.

[view some preliminary images of the event]

The formal ceremonies were video-recorded.

[video part 1] [video part 2 (promo video)] [ video part 3]

A full high resolution version of the promotional video as previewed in part 2 above, will be made available in its entirety shortly.

We are asking everyone to think about a donation to the Movember 2013 campaign, with proceeds going to mens cancer research and mental health initiatives.

Our local team, Martin’s Mo-rons are taking donations at this link:

http://ca.movember.com/team/1453937

Thanks for the folks in Journalism, and Western news, here is a short video summarizing some of the results of the research done at Western on the Chelyabinsk meteor and air burst.

http://vimeo.com/79529700

Fall Preview Day for the Faculty of Science was held in the atrium of the Physics and Astronomy Building on November 16, 2013.

There was a very large turnout of students and parents throughout the entire day, perhaps aided by a beautiful fall day weather-wise.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy was very well represented by an inspired group of faculty, staff, and undergraduate students volunteers who helped make the day a great success.

[images of the event]  [highlights video]

“From Space Robots to Human-Centered Robotics”

Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Speaker

Sami Haddadin, PhD

November 5, 2013 is a big day for the Meteor Physics group of astronomers, staff, students as they have teamed with international researchers to publish two significant papers in the electronic version of Nature, The International Weekly Journal of Science. This will follow in print form on November 14.

The Chelyabinsk event of 15 Feb. 2013, having an energy equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT, was the largest well-documented meteor event since the Tunguska event of 1908.

Analysis of the Chelyabinsk object’s in-atmosphere trajectory from video records has found that its orbit was similar to the orbit of the 2-km-diameter Near-Earth Asteroid 86039 (1999 NC43).

There is a possibility that the Chelyabinsk object was created through a collision between asteroid 86039 and another asteroid.

It is also very interesting that the Cheyabinsk Asteroid approached from the Sun’s direction, making it essentially undetectable in telescopes.

A detailed summary of the first paper is given on Paul Wiegert’s web site.

This paper in now online in Nature.

The second paper shows that objects of the size of Chelyabinsk, in the 15-50m range, have not only been overestimated in their damage estimates, and hence mis-reported from direct observation of damage, but they may also be ten times more numerous than previously estimated.  Combined, these two findings imply that impacting objects of this size present a much larger cumulative damage threat than previously recognized.

The second paper is also now online in Nature.

Western authors in these papers include: Prof. Peter Brown, Prof. Margaret Campbell-Brown, Prof. Paul Wiegert, David L. Clark, Elizabeth Silber, Rob Weryk, Jason Gill,  and Zbyskek Krzeminski, as well as Western graduates Wayne Eduards and Rhiannon Blaauw, and David Uren.

[photo: (left to right) David F. Gray, James. M. Moorhead, Paul Wiegert, John R. de Bruyn, present Chair Shantanu Basu]

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western University is happy
to announce that the International Astronomical Union has named
asteroids after the Chairs of the Departments of Physics and Astronomy
dating back to 1989.

Asteroids Wehlau, Moorcroft, Gray, Cottam, Moorhead, de Bruyn, and
Basu have been made official by the fifteen-person Working Group
for Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN) of the IAU. Asteroid
Landstreet was actually already named a decade ago. We as a
department are very happy to be able to join in in recognizing and
celebrating the tireless work and excellent research of our departmental
chairs throughout the years.

As part of the run-up to the Grand Opening ceremonies of the
newly-renovated Physics and Astronomy building, a brief ceremony to
announce the asteroid namings took place at 2:30 pm on Tuesday November
5th in the main-floor atrium.

Prior to the ceremony, a presentation to this year’s W.H. Wehlau Award winner Tyler Desjardins was made by Professor Martin Houde.

The asteroid naming ceremony was hosted by Prof. Paul Wiegert. Attending the ceremony, and receiving commemorative plaques were past Chairs David F. Gray, John D. Landstreet, James Moorhead, and John de Bruyn, as well as present Chair Prof. Shantanu Basu.

Professor William H. Wehlau was deceased in 1995.  His wife, Prof. Emerita Amelia F. Wehlau accepted the plaque on his behalf.

Professor Donald R. Moorcroft was unable to attend due to health, and Professor Michael G. Cottam was away on a research trip.

John Landstreet had been honoured with an asteroid naming previously, and already had his plaque.

The asteroids which were being named on this day had been discovered by Paul Wiegert at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope.

[images from reception]
Details about the asteroids along with the official naming citations can
be found at the following links:

W. Wehlau, Chair of Astronomy 1966-1991
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Wehlau;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

D. Moorcroft, Chair of Physics 1989-1996, then of Physics and Astronomy
1996-1998
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Moorcroft;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

D. Gray, Chair of Astronomy 1991-1992
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Gray;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

M. Cottam, Chair of Physics and Astronomy 1998-2003
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Cottam;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

J. Moorhead, Chair of Physics and Astronomy 2003-2005
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Moorhead;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

J. de Bruyn, Chair of Physics and Astronomy 2005-2010
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=de Bruyn;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

S. Basu, Chair of Physics and Astronomy 2010-present
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Basu;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

(previously named, J Landstreet, Chair of Astronomy from 1992-1996)
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Landstreet;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0

footnote: The Department of Physics was joined with the Department of
Astronomy in 1996 to form the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

PhD. candidate Tyler Desjardins (left) receives the W.H. Wehlau Award from host Prof. Martin Houde (centre) and wife of the late William Henry Wehlau, Prof. Emerita Amelia F. Wehlau (right).

A non-physicist sent these to me, good for your sanity; enjoy!

Jokes

Family, friends, and department members gathered informally to acknowledge our graduates who will be receiving their degrees at fall convocation on Nov.1, 2013.

[images of the event]

List of graduates:

Jeff Bailey
PhD in Astronomy
Dr. John Landstreet presenting Dept Mug

Geron Bindseil
PhD in Physics
Dr. Blaine Chronik presenting Dept Mug

Robbie Halonen
PhD in Astronomy
Dr. Carol Jones presenting Dept Mug

Sarah Kefayati
PhD in Physics
Dr. Tamie Peopping presenting Dept Mug

Sarah Malek
PhD in Astronomy
Dr. Jan Cami presenting Dept Mug

Shailesh Nene
PhD in Physics
Dr. Jeff Hutter presenting Dept Mug

Curtis Wiens
PhD in Physics
Dr. Charles McKenzie presenting Dept Mug

Quanzhi Ye
MSc in Astronomy
Dr. Peter Brown presenting Dept Mug