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Physics and Astronomy Physics and Astronomy DepartmenDepartment of t of PhysicPhysics ans danAstronomyd Astronomy SUMMER 2017 Message from the Chair As I complete the In this issue... first year of my 5 year Message from the Chair ............................................. 1 term as Chair of Physics & Astronomy, it is hard to Faculty Awards ........................................................... 2 believe how quickly the time has flown past. I would Other Awards .............................................................. 2 like to start by thanking David Venus who served Student Awards ........................................................... 2 two terms as chair and 2016 Nobel Prize ......................................................... 2 is now enjoying a much- deserved research leave. I “SANS for Nanostructured Materials” taking shape at the would also like to thank all McMaster Nuclear Reactor ........................................ 3 the members of Physics & Astronomy for their support Discovery of Gravitational Waves .............................. 3 and understanding while I learn on the job. Origins of Life ............................................................. 4 Graeme Luke For those who don’t know me, let me make a brief introduction. Postdoc Profile - Markus Rummel .............................. 5 I am an experimentalist working in Quantum Condensed Matter Graduate Student Profile - Allannah Hallas ................ 5 physics. My research involves novel superconductors and exotic magnetic systems (sometimes at the same time). In addition to my Undergraduate Profile - Claire Preston ....................... 5 in-house program in crystal growth and bulk magnetic, electronic and thermal characterization, I have an active program using large McMaster P&A Undergrads Hosted Successful Canadian facilities such as TRIUMF (muon spin rotation/relaxation) and Oak Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Ridge National Laboratory (neutron scattering). (CCUWiP) ................................................................... 6 The past year has been an eventful one in Physics & 2016 CUPC ................................................................. 6 Astronomy. Two of our faculty members have been recognized for Recent M.Sc. and Ph.D. Graduates ............................. 7 their extraordinary research contributions. Dr. Christine Wilson was awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Extragalactic Star Formation, as well as a Killam Fellowship. Dr. Bruce Gaulin who presently holds the Brockhouse Chair and is the head of the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) was named a Distinguished University Professor. Congratulations to Christine The past several years have been a period of restraint within the and Bruce! Faculty of Science. As a result of the university’s new budget model which allocated resources primarily on the basis of undergraduate Last year three members of the former Department of Medical enrolment and didn’t properly value inter-faculty teaching, Science Physics joined our department. In the intervening year, we developed had a significant budget deficit and looming debt. As a result, there a new program in Medical and Biological Physics which will was a loss of faculty positions as retirements were not replaced. welcome its first students this coming year. Preliminary registration Since then, surging enrolment and some changes in the budget numbers look very strong for this exciting new program; we may model resulted in a roughly $10M change in the faculty’s fortunes, double the number of students in programs from our department. seemingly overnight. I hope that the improved financial outlook Physics & Astronomy has also taken over the administration of the will allow some renewal in our department and that I will be able upper year students in the existing Medical Physics program, giving to report concrete steps towards new faculty appointments in next those students an academic home with like-minded students. year’s newsletter. 1 Department of Department of Physics and Astronomy Physics and Astronomy Faculty Awards Other Awards Two graduates of the Department of Physics & Astronomy were Dr. Christine Wilson recently was awarded Honourary Degrees in 2016-17. awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Professor Sow-Hsin Chen received his PhD in 1964 under the Chair in Extragalactic Star Formation. supervision of Prof. Bertram Brockhouse. He is now an Emeritus Tier 1 CRC chairs are renewable Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at appointments that are tenable for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he joined the faculty seven years, and are for outstanding in 1968. Prof. Chen is the co-author of more than 415 research researchers acknowledged by their publications and has been recognized with many prizes, awards peers as world leaders in their fields. and fellowships. In 2014, he was awarded an Honourary Doctorate Tier 1 Chairs bring the university from the University of Messina, Italy. Professor Chen received his $200,000 annually in new funding. Honourary Degree at the November 2016 convocation. Christine also was named a 2017 Professor R.G. Hamish Robertson received his PhD in 1971 under Killam Fellow. A small number of Dr. Christine Wilson the supervision of Prof. R.G. Summers-Gill. He is now the Boeing these prestigious fellowships are Endowed Professor of Physics at the University of Washington. Prof. awarded each year to researchers across all disciplines, with recipients Robertson is an internationally renowned leader in nuclear physics, required to be well-established with an outstanding reputation in particularly in the study of neutrino mass and solar neutrinos. He their field. The Killam Fellowship comes with substantial financial is the US co-spokesperson and former Scientific Director of the support to allow its recipients time to focus on pressing research Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. In 2015 he shared in the award of goals. the Breakthrough Prize in Physics and is a Fellow of the American Christine’s research involves observational astronomy. She Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the is in particular interested in understanding one of modern-day National Academy of Sciences. Professor Robertson will receive his astronomy’s most important unsolved problems: how stars form. Honourary Degree at the June 2017 convocation. Using the Atacama Large Array (ALMA), she intends to determine what causes the large variations in the rate of star formation from one galaxy to another by carrying out a pioneering and comprehensive Student Awards survey of astrochemical tracers in nearby galaxies. Congratulations to MSc student Fraser Evans, who won the award for the Best Student Oral Presentation for his talk “Red Misfit Galaxies Dr. Bruce Gaulin was one of five in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: at the Canadian Astronomical Society McMaster faculty who have just been in Winnipeg, June 2016. named as Distinguished University Professors. The title, created in Physics graduate, Aaron Goldberg was awarded the Governor 1996, goes only to those who achieve General’s Academic Medal for obtaining the highest standing throughout the highest level of excellence in the program in the 2016 graduating class. Aaron also tied for 5th place teaching, learning and research. out of 77 students in the 2016 CAP University Prize Exam. Those recognized with the honour are Undergraduate students, Diego Martinez, won 1st place overall and considered “complete scholars” and Ahmad Mahmood won 3rd place overall for their presentations at the have demonstrated an outstanding and Annual Physics Undergraduate Conference held at Western University. sustained research record, innovation in teaching and learning and a history Dr. Bruce Gaulin 2016 Nobel Prize of service that has had an impact on the community. No more than two percent of all full time faculty can The 2016 Nobel prize in physics went to Michael Kosterlitz, hold a distinguished university professorship. Duncan Haldane and David Thouless, “for theoretical discoveries Bruce is an experimental condensed matter physicist studying of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”. exotic phases of matter by neutron and x-ray scattering techniques. Thouless received half of the prize (which is worth 8 million kroner) These phases are typically generated by unusual magnets which while Kosterlitz and Haldane shared the other half. Kosterlitz and remain in entropy-dominated, disordered states down to very low Thouless worked in Birmingham in the 1970s on phase transitions in temperatures; by quantum magnets where a non-magnetic singlet 2-dimensional surfaces; showing that some systems can undergo phase ground state occurs at low temperatures, and by high temperature transitions associated with change in topology - a mathematical concept superconductors which may display novel “stripe” phases in which that describes global features that are insensitive to local deformation. magnetism and superconductivity co-exist in an inhomogeneous Haldane discovered the first example of a topological insulator, where fashion. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Physics non-trivial topology in the bulk of a system leads to protected zero- and Astronomy, the Brockhouse Chair in Physics of Materials, the energy modes on the boundary. Both lines of inquiry helped develop Director of the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) the use of topological methods in condensed matter systems, including and
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