The morning of Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016 promised to be perhaps the last warm day of the year.

At 10:00am, on the east lawn, the Department of Physics and Astronomy held a ceremonial tree planting in memory of the late physicist John David Jackson, a London boy who became a giant in the field of physics.

Department Chair Bob Sica commenced the planting ceremony for the healthy looking red maple tree by reciting the wording for a plaque which commemorates David Jackson’s career and his impact on the world of physics.

The plaque reads:

Taking part in the soil turning ceremony were the two most recent Lillian Margaret and Walter David Jackson Scholarship winners, Sivayini Kandeepan, and Cameron Hopkins.

[Flickr images] [Youtube video]

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, Abedin Abedin successfully defended his PhD thesis.

Prior to his examination, Abedin gave a public lecture titled, “Formation and past evolution of the meteoroid complex of Comet 96P/Machholz”.

Abedin was co-supervised by  Professors Peter Brown and Paul Wiegert.

The Lead TA program at Western is an initiative funded by The School for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS) and the Teaching Support Centre (TSC). This is the first official year of the program, following a two-year trial.  This year, eight lead TA positions were available for graduate student applicants from across all faculties/departments.  We are pleased to announce that our own Carolyn Cadogan has been awarded one of these positions for the Faculty of Science.

The role of the Lead TA is intended to be department-specific. That is, the Lead TA’s task is to identify departmental needs, from both the faculty members and graduate students’ perspectives.

This position will be rotated within the Faculty of Science in the future, so we in Physics and Astronomy should all take advantage of this opportunity.  Besides providing input to Carolyn, we should make an effort to participate in the activities designed to make graduate students’ life easier as TAs, and help elevate Physics & Astronomy undergraduate learning experiences to the next level.

Congratulations to Isabelle Cyr for receiving the William H. Wehlau Award, and to Cameron Hopkins for receiving the John David Jackson Scholarship for 2015-16.

The announcement was made by Associate Graduate Chair Silvia Mittler on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016.

On Thursday, September 1, 2016, Fereshteh Rajabi successfully defended her PhD thesis.

Prior to her examination, Fereshteh gave a public lecture on her thesis topic, titled “Dicke’s Superradiance in Astrophysics“.

Fereshteh was supervised by Professor Martin Houde.