Greetings,
I hope you've been managing through this fall term with all the changes. It has been amazing to see everyone step up to the new challenges that the pandemic is presenting. It has been a unique experience for everyone.
If you find that you are having an especially difficult time, remember that you are not alone. Your community is here to support you. As we head into the colder months, remember to have fun and get some sun! You are always welcome to reach out to the McDonald Institute for help. Our Department Manager sent the following out a few weeks ago: this is a great video on How to Build Your Mental Strength and also this short article: Make Mental Health Your #1 Priority.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention that there have been a few staff changes to the admin team here at the McDonald Institute, and we'd like to invite anyone interested to join us for a Zoom call on December 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm EST to meet with the community and welcome our new HQP across Canada. This is an opportunity to say hello and ask us anything! You can chat with all of us, or ask to meet in a breakout room for further discussion. If you'd like to join us, please register here. We look forward to seeing you.
(pronouns: he/him/his)
Communications Officer,
Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute
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The group is aimed towards providing value for researchers of all levels, administrators and engineers working in the field, and also astroparticle alumni who may be working in industry.
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In the last newsletter, I mentioned the long-term value of this group in forming connections to help your career path. To encourage more interaction and connection building in the group, we're introducing the Weekly Q: a weekly question to prompt discussion about various aspects of career building. Check out this week's question about professional development opportunities and share your story here!
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Pride in STEM - #LGBTQSTEMDAY
Tomorrow, November 18th, is Pride in STEM day! The date is symbolic of the 60th anniversary of American Astronomer and gay activist Frank Kameny’s US Supreme Court fight against workplace discrimination.
We will be participating in a small virtual gathering with our local Queen's group to celebrate and also attending as many of the public events as we can.
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McDonald Institute at the Midterm
The McDonald Institute marked a major milestone this year as it reached the mid-point of its funding agreement with the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF). The Institute is still completing its mid-term review with the funding agency, having submitted a major report in October and is organizing a virtual site visit with reviewers in late February.
The mid-term review process helps both CFREF and the Institute assess progress on the $63.7-million funding agreement scheduled from 2016 to 2023. The CRFEF funding is focused on developing a critical-mass talent pool and a program-driven support system that will sustain and enhance the long-term global research impact of particle astrophysicists working in Canada.
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"At the mid-term, the big story so far has been the remarkable growth of the community of astroparticle physicists working in Canada since 2016," says Managing Director Fouad Eligindy. "The particle astrophysics community in Canada has expanded from approximately 90 people to more than 240, and that growth has been massively supported with the Institute's CFREF funding for new faculty hiring, pooled support for student and postdoctoral stipends, and ongoing supports for engineering and technical support."
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The growth of the community has also expanded the breadth of disciplinary expertise, adding full-time materials scientists, chemists and geologists as active drivers of particle astrophysics research. In its reporting submission to CFREF, the Institute has described how it will provide ongoing program supports to ensure the larger and more interdisciplinary astroparticle physics community in Canada, and how it will prepare its researchers to maximize their international impact over the next several decades as new generations of experiments and theoretical directions in Dark Matter, messenger neutrinos and neutrino properties continue to take shape. |
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Special Thank you to Meghan Brien:
The McDonald Institute offers a special thank you for the work of its Program Officer since 2018, Meghan Brien. She recently accepted a new program management position at Queen's University's Department of English Language and Literature. Meghan has had an enormous impact during her two years at the Institute and has been responsible for coordinating the Institute's annual and mid-term reporting.
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In addition to her highly visible duties administering several of our key competitive funding programs, Meghan also took on responsibility for developing the Institute's long term performance measurement framework and administrative data collection process. Her new role will keep her close to the Institute's administrative offices, just across the street on the Queen's campus. We hope you will join us in wishing her continuing success in her new role. |
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The week of October 25th was the first-ever #BlackInPhysics week. There were some great live events happening, and importantly, there were several fantastic articles published that speak to the Black-in-physics experience.
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Also:
We also highlighted a number of Black Physicists to follow in our July Newsletter for #BlackInAstro week.
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McDonald Institute Funding Opportunities:
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The Cross-Disciplinary Internship Program for Summer of 2021 is accepting applications until 4:00 pm EST on November 27, 2020.
The second round of this program is open to post-secondary non-physics students to join an astroparticle physics research group for research over four months in 2021. The competition includes a maximum salary reimbursement of $12,000.
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The McDonald Institute is excited to launch a new version of the HQP Pooled Resources Competition. This competition is targeted to fund excellent graduate students for up to two years (maximum value of $24k/year) with a start date prior to September 2021.
Round 7 includes several differences from the previous competitions. The positions are available to the entire astroparticle physics community in Canada but must be in-line with the McDonald Institute Research Strategy. This competition requires the identified student to provide an unofficial transcript and an abbreviated version of the student’s Curriculum Vitae.
This competition closes on January 29, 2021, at 4:00 pm EST.
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The Professional Development and Learning Series is currently being held on a monthly basis. This initiative is available to all in the Canadian astroparticle physics community, and we encourage your attendance and participation in the social time following the presentations. |
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November 18, 2020, 2:30 pm EST
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is at the forefront of Canada's national security system. Their role is to investigate activities suspected of constituting threats to the security of Canada and to report on these to the Government of Canada. The Professional Development and Learning (PD&L) Series welcomes a CSIS expert who will provide an overview of threats of foreign interference and espionage targeting Canada’s research and development community, including within academia. While the life sciences are at significantly high risk at this time, this is not the only research and development being targeted. Other sectors such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nano-technology, big data analytics, and other digital and advanced technologies are also attractive targets for foreign espionage. Through this webinar, students, postdocs, and faculty will learn how CSIS supports and protects Canada’s research community, R&D, and investments against threat actors who might choose to exploit Canadian knowledge for national strategic or economic advantage.
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December 9, 2020, 2:30 pm EST
– Edward Thomas
Getting Money, Time and Commitment for Innovation and Commercialization – Pitch Building (at any scale)
How does an innovator make her case to a prospective partner, backer or investor to try and solve a problem in a new way? How would we use the tools of startup innovation to build compelling proposals in ways that are optimally convincing without ever compromising our ethics? What processes can help us write effective grants, investment cases, elevator pitches or negotiating terms?
Ed Thomas will review the ways startup innovation strategies and tactics can be coupled to simple narrative structure to develop proposals and pitches that use hypothesis tests and modelling to magnify our ability to engage prospective collaborators, partners and investors. Topics covered will include:
- Lean canvass models of value creation as a template for pitch building
- Value chain analyses
- Narrative structures
- Audience analysis & rhetorical approaches
- Decision-making models (generally)
- Models for investment decision-making
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CAP Diversity in Physics Survey - Deadline Extended |
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Physics is a quantitative science which relies on measurements to understand the natural world and validate hypotheses. Its success is based on that commitment to measurement, and the same is true of our desire to create a more inclusive environment in the Physics community in Canada.
There has never been a comprehensive survey of the diversity of the Physics community in Canada, whereas the US has been collecting these statistics for several decades.
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Due to the underwhelming response to this survey, organizers have extended the deadline one week, to November 23rd. As you can see, the reporting is under targets in all career brackets, especially those in more senior positions.
If you have a physics degree and are working/residing in Canada; or (2) are a student pursuing a physics degree at a Canadian institution, please complete this survey.
THANK YOU!
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Student and HQP Recruitment |
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In our last newsletter, we gave an overview of the Canadian Astroparticle National Meeting, which included a research presentation from Melanie Hall on recruitment strategies and decision making factors of prospective students.
The McDonald Institute is currently developing a suite of tools to improve recruitment, which we look forward to sharing with the community at some point. For now, we wanted to highlight some of the commendable recruitment efforts of our own Marie-Cécile
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Do you have some promotional materials to share with the community? Would you like some help creating something to put on your profile page or social media? We can help! Let us know at admin@mcdonaldinstitute.ca
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Did you miss Dark Matter Day?
This year, of course, we participated in Dark Matter Day from the comfort of our couches. Chances are you may have missed one or two!
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- Guillaume Giroux (McDonald Institute/Queen's University)
- Sunny Kerr (Agnes Etherington Art Centre)
- Art McDonald (Queen's University)
- Reiner Kruecken, TRIUMF's Deputy Director, Research
- Djuna Croon, post-doctoral researcher: TRIUMF Theory Department
- Richard Germond, Ph.D. candidate: Queen’s University currently working as a part of the Canadian SuperCDMS group – the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
SNOLAB and Science North: find out about all the knowns and unknowns in the search for dark matter. Tune in and ask your questions to our guest!
- Olathe MacIntyre (Science North Staff Scientist)
- SNOLAB research scientist Pietro Giampa
- Jeff Lazar – Graduate research assistant (WIPAC, UW–Madison, Harvard University)
- Nadège Iovine – PhD student (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
- Carlos A. Argüelles – Assistant Professor of Physics (Harvard University)
- Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (UNH)
- Caterina Doglioni (LUND)
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SNOLAB Seminar Series
Monday November 23rd at 1pm ET:
“Latest results from the full exposure of DAMIC at SNOLAB” (Dr. Daniel Baxter, University of Chicago)
Monday November 30th at 1pm ET:
“CUORE” (Dr. Paolo Gorla, LNGS)
Monday December 7th at 1 pm ET:
“Motivations, models and constraints of light Dark Matter – Theory” (Prof. Kathryn Zurek, Caltech)
Monday December 14th at 1 pm ET:
“A physicist's view on pandemic dynamics” (Dr. Giacomo Cacciapaglia, CNRS - IPN Lyon)
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TRIUMF’s Saturday Morning Lecture series
The Fall 2020 SML series runs from September 26 to December 12. For more information about how to tune in, please visit: https://lnkd.in/g_6Pbkn
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Thank you for your continued interest in the Canadian astroparticle physics community.
If you would like to view past newsletters from the McDonald Institute, please visit the: Newsletter Archive.
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