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Welcome to the December newsletter, the final edition of 2024! As we prepare for a bit of downtime, we’d like to wish you, your friends, and your families a very happy holiday season this year!
To help celebrate, we’re pleased to share the artwork from this year’s holiday card, Eagle Blessings by Quinn ᓂᑳᓐ ᓅᑎᓐ Hopkins. Hopkins is a mixed Anishinaabe/Settler artist from Tkaronto working at the intersection of Urban Indigenous culture and new media, crafting a vibrant dialogue between Indigenous history, present urban life, and futuristic visions. Through his art, Hopkins seeks to forge a path that honours heritage while embracing the possibilities of the future.
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Eagle Blessings is an animated virtual 3D sculpture that can be viewed in AR (augmented reality) with a mobile phone or tablet. Hopkins shares that "The piece celebrates the Eagle, a sacred being that, because they can fly the highest, are messengers to the sky and thunder beings."
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Scan or tap the QR code on your mobile device to bring Eagle Blessings to life in your own space this holiday season! If you feel like sharing, be sure to tag @noodinstudio and @mcdonaldinstitute on Instagram! | |
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Looking for a no/low-cost stocking stuffer for those enthusiastic friends and family members asking about your research? Look no further than the print-at-home Astroparticle Physics Community Card Game featuring actual projects and members of the Canadian astroparticle physics research community!
But wait, there’s more! Act now and fill out the card info form, and we will add your own personalized card to the downloadable game deck just in time for the holidays!
Project website with links to the card forms here.
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New Seminar Series for HQP! | |
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Introducing the McDonald Institute HQP Seminar Series, a monthly seminar given by postdocs and graduate students. The online seminar will occur on the last Wednesday of every month (starting in January) at 15:00 EST / 12:00 PST and is open for all to attend. We are soliciting interested HQP who would like to give a one-hour (with Q&A) seminar on their research. If you, or someone you know, would like to present, please contact Robert Collister at rcollister@physics.carleton.ca.
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Student Feature: Katrina Reimer! | |
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Katrina Reimer is a 3rd year undergraduate Engineering student at Queen’s University. Last year she participated in the STEMInA (STEM Indigenous Academics) program, where she was partnered with Dr. Tony Noble and worked with the PICO 40L dark matter experiment on neutron multiplicity. Reimer was working with detector calibration data to separate multiple neutron signals from single neutron signals. Neutron differentiation is important as the potential signal of a dark matter particle is expected to appear similar to that of a single neutron.
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Reimer was chosen to present her research at The Annual AISES National Conference in Texas in October. This was her first conference presentation, which she titled “Peci Wicein,” which means “Come with me” in Cree, and she created a short stop-motion animation to contextualize the PICO experiment at SNOLAB. | |
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The experience with astroparticle physics through the STEMInA program has opened up many opportunities for Reimer, who says she’s interested in working to help build capacity in her home community of Attawapiskat. As the first member of her family to pursue a post-secondary education, she feels very proud and empowered to make a difference in her community. Reimer attended an Indigenous Science conference in Regina and she is excited to explore concepts of Two-Eyed Seeing in her own projects.
Reimer would like to thank her graduate student mentors; Minya Bai, Emma Ellinwood, and Michaela Robert, who helped support her PICO internship.
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The Cross-Disciplinary Internship (CDI) program offers an exciting chance for students from non-physics fields, such as the social sciences and humanities, fine arts, health, law, and business, to dive into the world of astroparticle physics. Open to full- or part-time students in university or college in any non-physics or physics engineering majors, this paid internship connects curious minds with Canada’s top astroparticle researchers, allowing participants to expand their research skills, foster collaborations, and gain unique insights into this cutting-edge field. By bringing cross-disciplinary skills into physics spaces, students provide fresh perspectives that enrich the research environment and enhance problem-solving approaches.
If you’re interested in building new knowledge and advancing research through this program, we encourage members to advertise broadly and seek student applicants.
Postdoctoral fellows focused on astroparticle physics can serve as supervisors in the CDI program, bringing fresh expertise and dynamic mentorship to cross-disciplinary student projects.
New this year, Indigenous students are especially encouraged to apply, with applications considered beyond the program's standard quota to support Indigenous representation in astroparticle physics research.
The deadline to apply is January 24, 2025.
Visit https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/cdinternship/ for application details.
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GRIDS 2025
The Graduate Instrumentation and Detector School (GRIDS) is a two-week summer school for graduate students and new post-docs in nuclear, particle, and astroparticle physics to get hands-on training with the detector and instrumentation technology used in modern experiments. It is aimed primarily at those students and postdocs with limited experience with experimental hardware. GRIDS 2025 will be held May 26 - June 6, 2025. The application period is now open and closes in late January 2025.
Find out more here: https://indico.triumf.ca/event/574/
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CAPSS 2025 - Apply Now
The Canadian Astroparticle Physics Summer School (CAPSS) is a free week-long undergraduate school that introduces students to current topics in astroparticle physics. It is held at Queen’s University and then underground at SNOLAB. CAPSS will be held from May 4 to May 10, 2025.
The application period closes on Feb 2. For more information: https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/capss/capss-info/.
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Monday, January 6th, at 2:00 pm ET
(First Monday of every month at 2pm ET)
The MI-HQPAC (McDonald Institute Highly Qualified Personnel Advisory Committee) invites you to join in an open, drop-in virtual Town Hall meeting. This event is open to all members of the astroparticle physics research community. It focuses on issues relevant to the HQP community (students, postdocs, and early career researchers, engineers, and technicians). The Committee holds the monthly Town Hall meetings the week before the monthly committee meeting, where topics brought up during the Town Hall can be discussed in more detail and put into action.
This meeting is an opportunity to connect with others who are passionate about making the HQP experience the best it can be. It is a chance to talk about all issues, ideas, and questions with the people who are working to address them. It is also a great way to become familiar with the Committee and is recommended for anyone who is considering joining the committee.
Details here.
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If you’re feeling creative over the holidays, consider what a pitch for The Conversation could look like for your research. There are always folks available at your university to help refine a rough pitch, and editors at the Conversation work with you to help create a compelling article that will engage readers in your research. We do some pretty cool science here, and it’s great when other people get to appreciate it!
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New opportunities in astroparticle physics!
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The Careers in Astroparticle Physics website features jobs, research positions, and other career-building opportunities in the field in a highly discoverable way. Prospective and current students can easily find current postings to take their careers to the next step, or just to keep them inspired and optimistic about their future.
View the Careers website.
We hope you find this community resource helpful!
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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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