On Tuesday August 29, 2017, Sina Kazemian gave a public lecture on his thesis topic “Modelling the thermal conductivity of layered materials from photothermal measurements”.

He then successfully defended the thesis. Sina was supervised by Dr. Giovanni Fanchini.

On Monday August 21, 2017, the Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted a viewing of the partial eclipse on University College hill and the Cronyn observatory. Undeterred by the heat more than 5000 visitors of all ages, both the public and members of the Western community, came out to enjoy the show creating a festival atmosphere for the afternoon. Nature cooperated with clear skies offering magnificent views throughout the nearly three-hour event, where 75% of the sun was covered by the moon at the maximum of the eclipse. Several telescopes were set up along the walkway on the hill, as well as demonstrations of safe projection methods, while at Cronyn the Sun’s image was projected through our 25.4 cm refractor, and a live stream from the path of totality was broadcast in a classroom in the Engineering building next to the Observatory.

A big thank you to the volunteers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, who handled the large, enthusiastic crowd of anxious eclipse seekers with grace and professionalism, distributing viewing glasses, information sheets and much-needed water, and helping make an already unforgettable day even more so. The event would not have been possible without their efforts and dedication. Particular thanks go to Prof. Jan Cami for organizing the event and PhD candidate Robin Arnason for running operations on the day.

[google photos of the event]

On Monday August 14, the summer undergraduate students presented their research in PICO style during the Fusion Pizza event. Each student did a two minute presentation with slides before spreading out across the room for a Q&A session where attendees could circulate inquiring about each student’s research. The undergrads brought laptops and tablets to show their slides and provide more details for those interested. The event was a great success with some fantastic presentations and some interesting research on display.

Our Summer Undergraduate Presenters (l to r) Matt McCready, Derek Churchill, Roy Zang, Logan Dewsnap, Tim Hallett, Tina Yu, Chris Lee, Ian Fare.

This summer the Department is hosting three international interns who have come to Canada through the Mitacs Globalink Research Internship program. These students are Abhishek Chaudhary, working with Prof. Giovanni Fanchini, Shyam Menon, working with Prof. Shantanu Basu, and Xiyang Zhang, working with Prof. Sree Ram Valluri.

The Mitacs Globalink Research Internship program is a competitive program for international students from selected countries, currently Australia, Brazil, China, France, India, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. After a detailed process run by Mitacs, selected top-ranked applicants participate in a 12-week research internship under the supervision of a Canadian university faculty member.

Abhishek Chaudhary is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Engineering Physics at the University of Oldenburg, Germany. He is also funded by the German DAAD exchange program. According to Abhishek, “Being a Mitacs intern at Western University has been a very delightful and educational experience for me. My colleagues and supervisor Prof. Fanchini have been very helpful and supportive. I am also thankful for being allowed a certain degree of freedom to structure my internship as per my interests in graphene based solar cells. This research internship has further solidified my interest to pursue a PhD in semiconductor physics.”

Shyam Menon is pursuing a combined Bachelors-Masters degree in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Varanasi, India. Here he is running large-scale three-dimensional simulations of star formation, stating that “The experience has given me a lot of really good exposure to what it’s like to do research.There’s a lot of good research coming out of Canada now, especially here at Western. In fact, I am thinking about research as a career and doing graduate school in Canada. I would love to come back!”

Xiyang Zhang is an undergraduate student majoring in Statistics in the College of Mathematics, Sichuan University, China. He relates that “I seized an opportunity offered by Mitacs, starting my research project about data mining of gravitational wave data at Western. Here, a kindness toward multiculturalism and a strong academic atmosphere attract me deeply, facilitating my work tremendously.”

These three students are but the latest in a rich history of international interns in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western. There have been about ten Mitacs intern students in the Department in the last five years, and many others funded by other programs like the German DAAD, the Ontario/Baden-Wuerttemberg exchange program and the Ontario-India exchange program. In the Department, we hope to provide a positive experience of research and all-around support so that these students can pave the way for more exchange students in the future. These students can directly assess for themselves the merits of returning to Western for graduate studies. To this effect, the Mitacs students are also eligible for a Globalink Graduate Fellowship if they intend to return to Canada for graduate studies.

Related: see also this article.

Edith Yeung won the Best Graduate Poster award at the sixth annual Women is Physics Canada (WIPC) conference was hosted by the University of Waterloo, for her poster entitled “Incorporation of radical polymers in perovskite solar cells as hole transport material”.

Congratulations Edith!

On Thursday July 13, 2017, Kendra Kellogg gave a public lecture on her thesis topic “Investigating the Effects of Gravity, Cloud Structure and Metallicity on Brown Dwarf Atmospheres”.

She then successfully defended the thesis.Kendra was supervised by Dr. Stan Metchev.

On Monday June 26 the department honoured its TA Award winners for the 2016-2017 academic year. The event was hosted by graduate chair, Silvia Mittler, during the weekly department coffee and each winner was awarded a certificate and a $100 gift card to the campus bookstore.

TA Award for Demonstration: Dan Hatfield

TA Award for Administration: Mitchell Brocklebank

TA Award for Tutoring: Shayamila Mahagammulla Gamage (absent, attending a conference in Romania)

At a ceremony back in May, Mark Baker was awarded the Faculty of Science’s Graduate Student Teaching Award for the Department of Physics & Astronomy

Congratulations to all our award winners!

On Thursday June 15, 2017, the department of Physics and Astronomy celebrated its graduating class of 2017 with a reception for graduates and their family and friends prior to the convocation ceremony at Alumni Hall. Congratulations to all of our Graduates!

Physics and Astronomy Graduating Class of 2017:

PhD and MSc Graduates in Attendance

BSc Graduates in attendance

Mike Sharpe obtained his honors BSc degree at Western in Physics in 1986.

After working at the London Regional Cancer Program for two years, he returned to Western to complete his PhD in Medical Biophysics.

Since then Mike’s work has transformed the medical physics field, making significant impact in the delivery of radiotherapy for breast cancer patients, and influenced medical physicists throughout the world. Quoting from the American Association of Physicist in Medicine, “Dr. Sharpe has advanced the field through the development, validation, and application of radiotherapy and imaging technologies on which he has published over 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 11 book chapters, and has co-authored several patents.”

Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer at the prime age of 51.

This past Friday (June 9, 2017) , the Michael B. Sharpe Memorial Symposium was held in Toronto, a day before Mike’s favourite cycling event, the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. Physicists and physicians from different parts of Canada came to give scientific talks interspersed with stories of how Mike Sharpe influenced their work and their lives.

So, what can we do with a BSc in Physics?  Mike Sharpe has provided a brilliant example – he touched many lives and made the world a better place.

Eugene

Congratulations are in order for a pair of Physics & Astronomy graduate students who won awards at recent conferences.

At the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) annual meetings in Edmonton, Megan Tannock won 1st prize for the Best student poster presentation (as judged by the Board), for her poster: Weather on Other Worlds: Discovery of Three Extremely Fast Rotating Brown Dwarfs.

At the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Congress held in Kingston, Carolyn Cadogan won 2nd place in the Condensed Matter and Materials Physics division for her talk: Optical and Electrical Properties of Self-Assembled Silicon Nanoclusters.

Congratulations Megan and Carolyn!