Many of our undergraduate students recently presented their research at the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference at the University of Guelph. A special congratulations to Taren Ginter won best talk winner in the combined category of Biological/Medical Physics, Nanoscience, and Materials Science for her talk titled “Dying to be Beautiful”.

Real stories of alumni finding their way: "I enrolled in the Integrated Science program at McMaster, but soon realized that physics was my academic calling." — Ben Davis-Purcell B.Sc (Hon.) Physics '15, M.Sc. Physics '17

Here is the full story

 

Dr. Fiona McNeill and her research group have been researching the lead content in 18th century white lead makeup and have been creating TikToks as they go. Make sure to check out their channel and some of the most famous TikToks below.
Undergraduate student researcher Taren Ginter explains their motivation and the fun they have had:

With the tiktoks themselves, the main goal is to share fun and informative videos that give insight into our project and the lab itself. Since the project itself is so interesting and has many connections that extend beyond pure physics, we wanted to share our work with a wider audience! We started off with an instagram account, but realize that creating tiktoks would be more engaging. The videos cover a range of topics from cutting pigskin, to the historical context of the project, and even data analysis. We try to use popular sounds so that our videos can reach a larger audience, and then we just adapt them to suit work we do in the lab. Ultimately, the goal is to convey the science happening within the lab in a digestible, relatable, and fun manner! It’s also a lot of fun to make the videos, we love filming them because it’s a nice break from the more serious lab work and data collection. We’ve also learned a lot about content creation- cutting pig skin is weirdly popular, and controversy can result in way more engagement! One of the best parts has also been seeing engagement of Mac students that have seen our videos and ask about getting involved.

Some examples:

dancing with questions about work: https://www.tiktok.com/@toxicallure/video/7119120029387476230?_r=1&_t=8VsGYyR8B1i&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

cutting pigskin: https://www.tiktok.com/@toxicallure/video/7119120029387476230?_r=1&_t=8VsGYyR8B1i&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

check out the entire TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@toxicallure?_t=8VsGYyR8B1i&_r=1

We were thrilled to host our first in-person 'Meet the Profs' event in-person since 2019. It was fantastic to meet, mingle and share some yummy goodies with professors, staff, and most importantly students. We wish everyone a successful 2022/2023 school year!