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December 1, 2004

Two University of Toronto professors, Sajeev John and Geoffrey Ozin, have won the first-ever Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering, worth $250,000, for research into the containment of light in crystals, a technology that is expected to be key to the future development of optical computers. The new prize honours Bertram Brockhouse, a McMaster professor who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics “for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron-scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter.”

(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Nov. 30, 2004)

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September 13, 2004

Professor of Physics and Astronomy Peter G. Sutherland has announced that he will be stepping down from his position as Dean of Science effective June 30, 2005. “I want to do more teaching and explore new research and other opportunities at McMaster”, Sutherland said.

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July 26, 2004

The Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET), has received an investment totaling million that will allow the investigation of the structure of matter, through computer simulations, down to the nanometer scale.

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July 16, 2004

William Harris, professor of physics and astronomy and the world’s leading expert in the study of globular clusters in galaxies, has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada. Fellowship in the society is considered one of Canada’s most prestigious academic accolades to which scholars and scientists aspire.

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June 22, 2004

On June 11, 2004, Roby Austin successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Lifetimes of Superdeformed States in 38Ar”. She has been granted a NSERC University Faculty Award at Saint Mary’s University where she will be an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Physics. Her accompanying $50,000 NSERC Discovery Grant was the largest such grant awarded this year in the UFA competition.

May 12, 2004

Guillaume Gervais, who completed an MSc in nuclear physics with Stephane Flibotte and Jim Waddington, has accepted a junior faculty position at McGill. After completing his MSc at McMaster, Guillaume continued on to a PhD in low temperature physics at Northwestern University and then a postdoc with Nobel laureates Stormer and Tsui, based at the National High Field Magnet Lab in Florida.

May 10, 2004

Third-year science student Kristen Koopmans has been awarded a $6,000 travel scholarship from the T. Russell Wilkins Memorial Scholarship, which she will use to work with researchers at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is the world’s leader in research into elementary particle physics, investigating the inner workings of the fundamental particles that make up the universe. Koopmans will work with a team in the commissioning, testing and data collecting of a cosmics calibration set-up of the calorimeters.

February 27, 2004

A $250,000 science and engineering research prize in honour of the late Bertram Brockhouse, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics, was announced Friday at McMaster by Beth Phinney, member of parliament for Hamilton Mountain on behalf of Lucienne Robillard, minister of industry and minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. The award, the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering, was conceived as a 25th anniversary project of NSERC to permanently recognize Dr. Brockhouse’s contriibution to science and to Canada.

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February 3, 2004

In recognition of professor Jim Waddington’s retirement and his dedication to teaching, the department, his friends and colleagues have established the The Jim Waddington Prize in Physics & Astronomy to be given annually to the student with the best performance in Physics 1BA3 who then goes on to enter an Honours Program in Physics or Astronomy.