On Friday April 21, 2017 the members of the undergraduate thesis course, Physics 4999, presented their research talks. The course was overseen by Professor Giovanni Fanchini.

	Abhilash Mathews	The role of superradiance in cosmic fast radio bursts
	Patrick Hatch	The observability of Population III star clusters with the James Webb space telescope
	Jason Sung	Probing star formation in the universe with carbonaceous molecules
	Denis Heynen	Detection of very-low frequency radiation from fireballs
	J. Sachi Elkerton	Metal loss of evolved stars in low-metallicity dwarf galaxies
	Erin Iredale	Simulation of electric field from implanted electrodes for the treatment of primary brain tumors (via Skype)
	Dylan Del Papa	Electric field transfer concept applied to an insulated metal wire exposed to a 21.3 MHz electric field
	Renlong Zheng	Tuning the pore size and gas adsorption ability of MOFs via mixed linker and alkali metal doping

[Flickr images]

On Friday April 21, 2017, Bushra Hussain gave a public lecture on her thesis topic “Methods for Improved Estimation of Low Blood Velocities using Vector Doppler Ultrasound”.  She then successfully defended the thesis.

Bushra (centre) was supervised by Dr. Tamie Poepping and Dr. James Lacefield.

On Thursday April 20, 2017 Kieffer Davieau gave a public lecture on his thesis topic “The study of plasmonics in nanohole metallic metamaterials”.

He then successfully defended the thesis.

Kieffer  was co-supervised by Dr. Mahi Singh (right) and Dr. Jeff Carson (left).

On Wednesday April 19, 2017 Zahra Haghshenasfard gave a public lecture on her thesis topic “Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics of Spin Waves in Ferromagnetic Nanowires”. She then successfully defended the thesis.

Zahra was supervised by Dr. Michael Cottam.

Canada renews its Space Advisory Board, and a new sitting member Western’s Professor Gordon Osinski.

https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2017/04/government_of_canadarenewsspaceadvisoryboard.html

The J.S. Plaskett Medal of the Canadian Astonomical Society (CASCA) is awarded yearly to the very best astronomy PhD thesis in the country.

We are so proud to announce that recent Western graduate Dr. Fereshteh Rajabi is the recipient of the 2017 Plaskett Medal.

Under the supervision of Dr. Martin Houde, Fereshteh did groundbreaking work in her thesis titled, “Dicke’s Superradiance in Astrophysics”.

The official citation reads as follows,

“CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Fereshteh Rajabi as the 2017 recipient of the J. S. Plaskett Medal.

 Dr. Rajabi completed her doctoral studies at the University of Western Ontario under the supervision of Dr. Martin Houde. Her thesis entitled “Dicke’s Superradiance in Astrophysics” extends the mathematical description of this intriguing physical process to many phenomena of astrophysical interest. Superradiance is a quantum mechanical and coherent behaviour between closely spaced atoms or molecules (i.e., several within a wavelength) that makes them, when certain conditions are met, emit radiation that is much more focused and intense than expected. Dr. Rajabi used superradiance to elegantly explain anomalous fluxes in the 21cm line of hydrogen atom and unexplained maser flares and bursts in the envelopes of evolved stars. She made fundamental physical advances that brought superradiance out of the lab and into an ever more surprising Universe. Her work has attracted worldwide attention not only in astrophysics, but also in the field of quantum optics.”

Fereshteh is now the third Western astronomer to be so honoured, following in the footsteps of Grant Hill (1994) and Peter Brown (2001).

[Flickr images]

The inaugural Physics and Astronomy Summer Research Internship Prize had many wonderful applicants.

The winners for the summer of 2017 are:

• Ting Yu (runner up)
• Rong Xuan Zang (runner up)
• Meet Panchal (winner)

First prize winner Meet Panchal will be doing research with Dr. Sarah Gallagher in the field of active galaxies and black holes.

Both runner ups have also landed summer research positions with Physics & Astronomy faculty members.

Dr. Gallagher hosted the presentation ceremony which took place on Thursday, April 6, 2017.

[images on Flickr]

Space Day @ Western was celebrated for 2017 on Wednesday, April 6.

It was a long eventful day full of energy and activity.

During the morning, two sections of Gordon Osinski’s class presented their poster papers in the Physics and Astronomy atrium. These were judged by a select panel of graduate students and faculty members.

Visiting keynote speaker, Dr. Bernard Foing of the European Space Agency, strolled amongst the undergraduates and took a great interest in their projects. The students, some of whom had cited Dr. Foing in their research results, were thrilled by his presence.

After lunch, the afternoon began with the graduate students displaying their poster papers. Dr. Foing also seemed to enjoy chatting to this group about their own research.

Following this everyone adjourned to PAB100 where the oral presentations were conducted.

Prior to the talks, Gordon Osinski welcomed everyone and also made a surprise presentation of volunteer appreciation certificates to students Elise Harrington, Sarah Simpson, Matthew Svensson, Derek King, and Danny Bednar.

The talks by local students and researchers went as follows:

• Liam Innis and Matthew Svensson spoke on a High Altitude Balloon research proposal
• Zachary Morse and Derek King spoke on the topic of a farming robot.
• Postdoctoral Fellow Matt Cross spoke on a proposed research program to locally develop cube-sats and nano-sats.

Keynote speaker Dr. Bernard Foing of the European Space Agency gave a talk titled, “European Space Agency (ESA) Research and Moon Village Initiative”. Bernard Foing was introduced by Faculty of Science Associate VP of Research Mark Daley.

A reception followed, during which Adjunct Professor in Earth Sciences  Livio Tornebene, along with grad students Jon Kissi and Gavin Tolometti gave tours of the Mars Mission Control room where they were taking part in an Mars rover photography mission.

The successful event was organized by a hard working group of volunteers led by  Jennifer Thompson, Zachary Morse  and Paul Weigert.