2006 Department News
November 10, 2006
Cliff Burgess, professor in subatomic physics at McMaster as well as a member of the Perimeter Institute, will have hisnew bookon the standard model of particle physics published in December 2006.
October 24, 2006
The McMaster contingent of our Honours Physics and Medical Physics undergrads to the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference 2006 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, performed extremely well garnering four out of six prizes:
Sheetal Saxena, 4th year honours medical physics,second prize for her poster
Katie Woods, 3rd year honours physics, third prize for her poster
Daryl Mason, 4th year honours physics, second prize for his talk
Matt Farrar, 4th year honours physics, first prize for his talk
Congratulations to the entiregroup.
October 20, 2006
Congratulations toRalph Pudritz, professor of physics and astronomy and director of theOrigins Institute, for receiving the Hamilton Spectator Publisher's Education Award for his dedication and contribution to community education.
October 2, 2006
TheMACafé Scientifiquereturns this term with physics and astronomy professorsDoug WelchandRalph Pudritzand the topic of Planetary Systems and Prospects for Extraterrestrial Life.
June 20, 2006
The Hubble Space Telescope main web page currently features a picture and article on unusual-looking galaxy Arp 220 byChristine WilsonandBill Harris, among others.
Click here for the full article
June 14, 2006
McMaster physics and astronomy professorChristine Wilsonand her team reports surprising similarities between extreme galaxies and more normal ones like our Milky Way galaxy, as outlined today at a press conference at the 208th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Calgary.
Click here for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Press Release
June 14, 2006
The second annualBrockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineeringhas been awarded to three University of British Columbia professors, Dr Walter Hardy, Dr Doug Bonn and Dr Ruixing Liang. The prestigious award honours the 1994 Nobel prize in physics co-recipient and former McMaster professor,Bertram Brockhouse.
June 9, 2006
James Wadsley, assistant professor of Physics & Astronomy, and his student Sijing Shen have shown in simulations (using theSHARCNETfacility) that brown dwarf stars can be created when two young stars surrounded by gas and dust pass close to each other. Their results were announced this week at the annual meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society in Calgary.
June 8, 2006
Professor of Physics & Astronomy,Doug Welch, is among a group of 17 astronomers whose study has indicated that supernovae made major contributions to dust that existed during the early formation of the universe. Thepaper(pdf) is to be published today in Science Express.
or atMSNBC
Click here for the story by Jane Christmas
June 7, 2006
Professor of Physics and Astronomy,Doug Welch, has just had published his children's book on astronomy "Amazing Facts about Australia's Southern Skies". It is now available at McMaster's Titles bookstore under both "Science" and "Mac Authors". Clickherefor the publisher's flyer in pdf form.
Click here for the story by Christine MacLean
June 7, 2006
Soko Matsumura and Ralph Pudritz continue to garner news attention for their work on the formation of planets with an article inAstrobiology Magazine. Please see below, June 5 and 6, for more information.
Click here for the Astrobiology Magazine article
June 6, 2006
Physics & Astronomy grad student Soko Matsumura, and Professor Ralph Pudritz are in the news as their findings concerning the formation of planets have been reported in New Scientist Space. Also see below, June 5, 2006, for more information.
Click here for the New Scientist Space article
June 5, 2006
Astronomers from McMaster University find that dead zones - which typically extend out to 13 astronomical units from the central star of an extrasolar planetary system - can significantly slow planetary migration so that planets are not lost to the systems. This work is to be described in a press conference at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Calgary, Alberta on June 5, 2006, and in an invited talk at a scientific session during the meeting.
June 5, 2006
Graduating student Daniel Laycock will receive the Governor General's Academic Medal today at the Spring Convocation where he will also receive his B.Sc. in Theoretical and Computational Physics. Congratulations Daniel!
Click here for the story by Deborah McIvor
June 5, 2006
Dorian Smith, a student in grade 9 at Governor Simcoe Secondary School in St. Catherines has won the Department of Physics & Astronomy Entrance Award Draw for 2006. Congratulations Dorian!
June 2, 2006
Phase two of theShared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network(SHARCNET) was marked on Tuesday May 30 with a video conference at the University of Western Ontario. SHARCNET is a high performance computing network that links together 16 universities and colleges in south central Ontario including McMaster where a significant portion of the computing hardware is located.
April 12, 2006
Professor of physics and astronomy,Doug Welch, will have 180 orbits of the Hubble Space Telescope allocated to his research on the Coma cluster of galaxies.
Click here for the story by Jane Christmas
April 7, 2006
Grad students David Lepischak and Steve Bickerton receive much attention from a Hamilton Spectator article and a McMasterDailynews storywith their hectic schedule running the popular shows at theWilliam J. McCallion Planetarium.
March 1, 2006
Among the eleven Killam Research Fellowships renewed for a second year is the department'sClifford Burgess, also of the Perimeter Institute, for his study of String Cosmology.
February 1, 2006
Physics & Astronomy professorWilliam Harrisis interviewed bySPARKwriter Graham Jansz for the McMaster daily news.
January 16, 2006
Ralph Pudritz, Physics & Astronomy professor andOrigins Institutedirector, has had a theory he published with then-student Jason Fiege confirmed by observations made by Berkeley astronomers using the Virginia-based GBT radio telescope.
