physics and astronomy western εquiliβrium - january 2013.pdfphysics and astronomy ... andrea...
TRANSCRIPT
Physics is a central subject that branches into essentially all other sciences and engineering, with applications to medicine and technology. Almost every aspect of our modern life relies on scientific underpinnings, and even seemingly esoteric branches of physics like quantum mechanics and relativity have found their way into the use of our favorite gadgets like mobile phones and GPS systems. In addition to a solid Physics degree, we offer undergraduate degrees in Astro‐physics and Medical Physics. Astrophysics taps into the largest Astronomy facul‐ty contingent in a Physics Department in a Canadian University. Medical Physics taps into a very large and productive medical research community in London.
We have rapidly growing graduate programs in Physics and Astronomy. Collaborative programs allow a student to pair these graduate degrees with any one of Environmental Science, Materials Science, Planetary Science, Scientific Computing, or Theoretical Physics. We have some of the most modern facilities in Canada, with new first year laboratories introduced in a new building in 2006, and an extensive renovation to the main Physics and Astronomy Building that ended in 2012. We have the most modern facilities but ensconced within the graceful, charming, and beautiful campus of Western University. We feel proud to work in the energizing environment that is the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western!
Shantanu Basu, Chair
Welcome to the 3rd annual Issue of εquiliβrium
I n s i d e t h i s
i s s u e :
Staff/Faculty
Awards 2/3
Faculty recruit‐
ment 2
“Stardust” 3
P&A Building ‐
final product! 4
Ph y s i c s a n d
A s t r o n omy
@ Wes t e r n εquiliβrium J a n u a r y 2 0 1 3 V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 1 S p e c i a l
p o i n t s o f
i n t e r e s t :
Third annual issue of εquiliβrium!
Looking back @
2012
Looking ahead in 2013
Special Accom‐plishments of
faculty, staff and
students
Annual Elizabeth Laird Lecture—Rocky Kolb of the University of Chicago spoke in October on “The Mys‐teries of the Dark Universe” to an appreciative audience of ~ 300
Harrison Schmidt—an Apollo 17 astronaut—gave the Planetary Science Annual Distinguished Public Lecture to an audience of ~400
Two faculty searches were successfully concluded—for medical physics and a Canada Research Chair in exoplanets
Building renovations concluded in the Fall
Highlights of 2012
Looking ahead in 2013 Dr. Stanimir (Stan) Metchev of Stonybrook University in New York will join us on 1st July 2013 as Asso‐
ciate Professor nominated for a Canada Research Chair in Exoplanets
The official Grand Opening of the newly renovated Physics & Astronomy Building will take place on Fri‐day, 29th November 2013
P a g e 2
“Everything
should be made
as simple as possible,
but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
Faculty Recruitment
Staff/Faculty Awards
ε q u i l i β r i u m
Dr. Andrea Soddu began his appointment on 1st January 2013, coming to us from the University of Liège, Belgium, where he worked as a postdoctoral fellow. He has a background in theoretical physics, having obtained his PhD in theoretical particle physics at the University of Virginia, but in recent years, he made a switch into neuro‐science research, and has published at least 24 papers in this field.
He has made important contributions by applying sophisticated and rigorous mathe‐matical tools to the analysis of brain activity patterns ‐ relying on his quantitative abilities and training as a physicist.
Andrea brings a strong program in behavioural neuroscience to our medical physics group that ties him closely to work being done at Western's Brain and Mind Institute. This winter, he taught Physics 2810—Intro to Medical Physics.
Andrea looks forward to being able to study functional connectivity in the brain using data‐driven approaches and computational modeling. His unique interdisciplinary
background will help train his students to transfer ideas across fields as well.
“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.”
… Galileo Galilei
The American Physical Socie‐ty, the world's second largest organization of physicists, elected Dick Holt to be a Fellow of the APS.
Dick was elected by his peers, in recognition for his out‐standing contributions.
The citation reads, "For a landmark proposal to test
Bell’s inequality, and high‐precision experiments of key significance to test quantum electrodynamics in two‐electron atomic ions."
Phin Perquin was awarded the Dean's Special Award of Merit for 2012 to recognize Phin's extended service to the Department and Facul‐ty.
Shantanu announced the award, saying that "Phin has been a staff member in the Department for 36 years, bringing experience and wisdom to many roles over the years, including that of Department Renovations Coordinator the past few years. There were many competing interests that Phin had to manage, and the beautiful result is visible to all."
President Amit Chakma: “The Western Award of Excellence is the highest honour we bestow upon our staff whose knowledge, skills and commitment represent the best of our campus community. I congratulate those individuals who have been recognized by their peers and col‐leagues for the outstanding work they do. To be honoured by those who work most closely with us speaks volumes of the impact we make to the life of the academy.”
Winners were chosen for their exemplary service, creativity and innovation, the ability to share their knowledge and expertise and their capacity to foster their values of integrity and respect across campus. One of 2012’s winners was our own Peter Frank. Peter is involved in setting up all our First‐Year Lab experiments and doing physics demonstrations at outreach events.
P a g e 3 V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 1
Stardust ...
Dr. Edward “Rocky” Kolb (University of Chicago) presented the 2012 Laird Lecture on 4th Octo‐ber. Dr. Kolb wowed a packed house of 270 people in Conron Hall with a brilliant presentation entitled “Mysteries of the Dark Universe.”
Over 2,000 Londoners came to Western to view the “Transit of Ve‐nus” on 5th June, facilitated by Jan Cami. A large contingent of our RASC colleagues brought all manner of telescopes and viewing devices for the safe viewing of this rare event. A large group of local volunteers made the day, (and night!) a huge success!
Student Awards In May, Astronomy PhD student Aycha Tammour won a ‘Faculty for the Future’ fellowship from the Schlumberger Foundation. Aycha is working with supervisor Dr. Sarah Gallagher. In June, Geron Bindseil and Teznie Pugh were presented with ‘Teaching Assistant Awards’ for 2011‐12. Melanie Wright was also a winner, but wasn’t able to receive her award until October, as she was in Resolute Bay (Qausuittuq), Nunavut doing atmospheric research at the time of the presentations. In September, Geron Bindseil, nearing completion of a Medical Physics PhD in MRI systems with Dr. Blaine Chronik, was selected as one of three ‘Learning Development Fellows’ in the Faculty of Science. In August PhD student Emily McCullough received the ‘William H. Wehlau Award.’ She was also the 2012 recipient of the ‘Northern Science Training Program Malcolm Ramsay Memorial Award’ from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. These are just a few of the awards presented to our graduate students. To them all we say, “CONGRATULATIONS!”
Kanthi Kaluarachchi hosted a delegation from the University of Nigeria (UNN) visiting Western’s first‐year undergraduate labs in physics, chemistry and biology to take notes on teaching methods and lab apparatus. They hope to emulate Western’s best student experience more than 9,200 km away. Alt‐hough UNN is a large university, it is in need of lab facilities. At times, 10 students may be sharing one apparatus within a lab. UNN officials plan to erect buildings to house the new labs for biology, chemis‐try and physics using floor plans based on Western’s recent renovation of those areas.
Martin Zinke‐Allmang’s first‐year Physics class has changed drastically over the last five years, thanks to new software and help from Information Technology Services (ITS) at Western. He has arranged a new way to present his lectures to hearing im‐paired students with a closed‐captioning option so they get the same classroom expe‐rience available to the rest of the class. As he teaches, his lectures are recorded using Blackboard Collaborate, a virtual classroom environment facilitated by ITS. On that system are his preloaded PowerPoint slides, upon which he makes notes during the lecture. Everything is recorded by the system.
This is the first time the feature has been used in a Western classroom.
In a study published in the May issue of The Astrophysical Journal, Shantanu Basu and Eduard Vorobyov presented a new model of brown dwarf formation. Brown dwarfs are as‐tronomical objects that have too little mass to be called stars and arguably too much mass to be called planets. Quoting a press release from Western, “Employing numerical hydrody‐namic simulations carried out in part by utilizing the high performance computing capabilities of Western's SHARCNET, Basu and Vorobyov … prove that the early life of a disc is characterized by the formation of multiple fragments that orbit the central protostar and that the interaction of fragments leads to the ejection of some brown dwarf frag‐ments that have yet to fully form.” The model provided a new way to account for freely floating brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects.
Physics & Astronomy Building—the final product
Donations gratefully accepted
The Department of Physics and Astronomy welcomes donations from alumni, friends, and well‐wishers. To make a donation to the Department, please contact Paula Luchak (contact infor‐mation below). Donations are tax deductible. Alumni Relations and Development Paula Luchak Faculty of Science Western University WSC 107 London ON N6A 5B7 CANADA
Phone: 519‐661‐2111 ext. 86642
Email: [email protected]
Please feel free to contact the Department by any of the means below: By mail: Department of Physics and Astronomy
Western University PAB 138 London ON N6A 3K7 CANADA
By phone: 519‐661‐2111 ext. 86438
By email: p‐[email protected] or [email protected]
Department Chair: Prof. Shantanu Basu
Assistant to the Chair: Jodi Guthrie
Visit us on the web: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/
Contact the Department