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Greetings,,
Once again this newsletter is coming to you the day of one of our Professional Development sessions. Today's session, "Taking Care of Yourself" starts at 3:00 PM ET. Register here.
Be sure to check out the Community Bulletin at the bottom of this newsletter, which includes some quick points of interest for the Canadian astroparticle physics community.
Also, if you're affiliated with Queen's, check out the Art of Research photo/video competition and let your creative side shine!
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The Professional Development Opportunities (PDO) program supports the national Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) community in building the skills, confidence, and connections needed for impactful careers in and beyond academia.
Join us for today's session, Wednesday, March 11, at 3 pm EST, where we will be joined by Abby Taher from Queen's Student Wellness Services to discuss strategies that students can use to prioritize their wellbeing during both on-campus and ‘in the field’ research activities. We will also spend time developing an individualized Wellness Action Plan to guide how you implement these strategies based on your schedule.
This session (and most of the PDO offerings) will be offered both in person and virtually over Zoom.
Register here
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McDonald Institute Seminars:
March 12, 12:30 - 1:30 PM ET
Dr. Anna Suliga (NYU)
“New Neutrino Interactions and Core-Collapse Supernovae”
In person at Queen’s University: Stirling Hall, Rm 501
Or virtually on YouTube.
March 19, 12:30 - 1:30 PM ET
Nasim Fatemighomi (SNOLAB)
Dr. Nasim Fatemighomi is a research scientist at SNOLAB, collaborating on the SNO+, DEAP-3600, and nEXO experiments. Her work with SNO+ focuses on radon background mitigation — a critical challenge for neutrino less double-beta decay searches.
In person at Queen’s University: Stirling Hall, Rm 501
Or virtually on YouTube.
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Cosmological Frontiers in Fundamental Physics 2026 at Perimeter Institute, April 27-29
Registration deadline: April 6, 2026
https://events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/1540/overview
GRIDS at TRIUMF, June 1 – 12, 2026
The GRaduate Instrumentation and Detector School (GRIDS) offers a diversified learning experience, combining lectures from world-leading experts with hands-on experience with typical detector and instrumentation technology. Now in its sixth edition, GRIDS is a summer school for graduate students and new post-docs in nuclear, particle, and astroparticle physics to get hands-on training with the detectors used in modern experiments.
Extended application deadline: March 15
https://indico.triumf.ca/event/918/registrations/77/
The 2026 Tri-Institute Summer School on Elementary Particles (TRISEP)
TRISEP is an international summer school organized jointly by Perimeter Institute, SNOLAB, and TRIUMF, Canada's laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. TRISEP will feature lectures by leading experts in the fields of particle physics and particle astrophysics (broadly defined) and is designed to be very interactive with ample time for questions, discussions and interaction with the speakers. The school is intended for graduate students of all levels, both theorists and experimentalists, preferably with some knowledge of quantum field theory.
Registration and Call for Abstracts both close April 28, 2026.
https://events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/2050/
The Canadian Astroparticle Physics Community Annual Meeting, Kingston, Ontario, July 27-29.
This year’s HQP-led focus is intended to provide a forum for graduate and postdoctoral fellows to present their specific research contributions in the themes of dark matter, neutrinos, multi-messenger astronomy, and astroparticle theory & computation. HQP will also be encouraged to discuss their own insights about the implications of their work for the field at large and for practical application outside the field.
The first day of the meeting will provide a series of leadership-development workshops for HQP, including a unique hands-on exercise in relational thinking based on an Indigenous makers’ practice. The next two days will feature research presentations, keynote talks, panels, and social events.
Registration and abstract submissions are now open.
Light Dark World comes to Canada, July 28-31
The eleventh annual Light Dark World International Forum is taking place from July 28-31 at Carleton University in Ottawa. This event will cover recent progress on light gauge bosons, light scalars, light dark matter candidates (axions, light sterile neutrinos), and dark energy fields.
The call for abstracts is currently open.
For more information, please visit the Indico site.
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The Advancing I-EDI Award: OPEN
The McDonald Institute is pleased to relaunch the Advancing Indigenization - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (I-EDI) Fund for Astroparticle Physics, supporting initiatives that strengthen equitable training environments and research cultures across astroparticle physics and related disciplines.
The award prioritizes activities that expand I-EDI action in Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) training and research environments through five funding streams:
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Stream 1 (up to $1,000): Seed funding for new initiatives that build EDII capacity in labs, research groups, and departments, including pilot programs, training activities, or events.
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Stream 2 (up to $2,500): Support funding for existing initiatives that advance EDII practice in the field.
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Stream 3 (up to $2,500): Support for faculty actively advancing equity goals using the DEAP Tool for Researchers (or an equivalent assessment framework). Advising support is available.
New for Round 2 (2026):
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Stream 4 (up to $5,000): Seed funding to advance community partnerships that build relationships with equity-deserving groups, create pathways into physics degrees, and foster interdisciplinary collaborations that strengthen long-term participation and retention in astroparticle physics.
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Stream 5 (up to $12,000): Seeding support for research projects that examine and advance understandings of equity, diversity, inclusion, Indigenization, anti-racism, and accessibility (EDIIAA) in astroparticle physics, including research, evaluation, and knowledge mobilization activities.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with internal adjudication occurring at the end of each month until available funds are fully allocated.
Students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, researchers, and faculty across the network are encouraged to apply. Learn more about eligibility, timelines, and application details at: https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/funding-opportunities/the-edii-fund/
Please reach out to Alex Pedersen (alexandra.pedersen@mcdonaldinstitute.ca) with any questions.
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Visiting Scientist Program - Open
The Visiting Scientist Program has been revamped and is now open to new applications. The program provides flexible cost-reimbursement support to full-time, post-PhD astroparticle physics researchers to work with new collaborators in Canada and internationally. The program also provides support for international colleagues' visits to Canada. Postdoctoral Fellows are eligible for support between 2-12 weeks duration. Faculty and Staff Scientists are eligible for up to 52 weeks. The program has been specifically designed to reduce financial barriers for high-value exchanges/visits that are not part of regular sabbatical leaves, or may not be eligible for full funding support from regular sources. It will not support conference registrations or conference travel. Maximum reimbursements are $16,000 CDN, and consist of travel support, capped accommodation supports, and city-specific capped cost-of-living per diems addressing differential costs for food, transit, and utilities. Full details at https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/funding-opportunities/visiting-scientist-exchange/
Graduate Student Exchange Program - Open
The Graduate Student Exchange Program is now open to new applications. The program provides flexible cost-reimbursement support to master's and doctoral students in astroparticle physics to work with new collaborators in Canada or internationally. Students are eligible for support between 1-12 weeks’ duration. The program is designed to reduce barriers for supervisors to support their students’ high-value working exchanges/visits. The program will not support conference registrations or conference travel. Maximum reimbursements are $8,000 CDN, and consist of travel support, capped accommodation supports, and city-specific capped cost-of-living per diems addressing differential costs for food, transit, and utilities. Full details at https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/funding-opportunities/graduate-student-exchange/
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Join the Astroparticle Physics Community of Practice for I-EDIAA
We are launching a new Community of Practice (CoP) for researchers and trainee leaders interested in applying the DEAP Tool for Researchers (https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/deap-tool-for-researchers/) in real research settings across Canada’s astroparticle physics network. This peer-learning group will create a practical space to share experiences, challenges, and emerging practices. The purpose of this group is to support goal-setting and action planning, and learn from one another about strengthening inclusive lab culture, mentorship, supervision, and research environments. Each meeting will feature a guest speaker, short reading, or case study, with dedicated time to reflect, share experiences, and connect insights back to the DEAP Tool to support progress within participants’ own research contexts.
Whether you are new to the DEAP Tool or already using it in your research group, we welcome participants who are interested in collaborative learning, applied problem-solving, and contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.
Those interested are encouraged to register, with the date and time of the first meeting to be scheduled in February based on participant availability: Astroparticle Physics Community of Practice for I-EDIAA – Fill out form
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📌 Community Bulletin
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EurekAlert! reports that KM3NeT has published a new paper in JCAP (Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics) addressing the 100 PeV transient in 2023. In the March 9 publication, authors hypothesized that a cluster of blazars may be capable of raising the energy of a neutrino to such an extreme energy. The new paper also references data from IceCube and the Fermi telescope in consideration of such a hypothesis. The arXiv paper “Blazars as a Potential Origin of the KM3-230213A Event” was posted on November 17.
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Phys.org is featuring a brief article summarizing recent sensor upgrades to IceCube detailing the expanded capability of the facility to detect lower-energy neutrinos.
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The Queen’s Gazette published an article on the research of geoneutrinos. The research, which was first presented at the Neutrino Geoscience Conference in October, provides exciting new possibilities for geologists to study the Earth’s interior.
👉 Submit an item for next month's bulletin.
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Our newsletter provides the astroparticle physics community with updates, programs, and opportunities, and we want to help share your story! We invite all members of the community to contribute to this newsletter.
The McDonald Institute at Queen’s University is situated in the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe & Haudenosaunee First Nations. The Institute is part of a national network of institutions and research centres which operate in other traditional Indigenous territories. Visit www.whose.land to learn about the traditional territories where astroparticle physicists are grateful to live and work across Canada.
Thank you for your support. If you would like to view past newsletters from the McDonald Institute, please visit the Newsletter Archive.
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