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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.
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In 2019, The McDonald Institute, in partnership with The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, and SNOLB, hosted an art and science residency. Artists Anne Riley, Nadia Lichtig, Josefa Ntjam, and Jol Thoms visited Queen’s and SNOLAB, met with scientists working in astroparticle physics and created artwork inspired by the experience. The work was exhibited in Kingston, Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa. | | |
Last year, the artists, organizers, and invited guests contributed to co-author DRIFT: Art & Dark Matter. The 182-page, full-colour book is both a catalogue of the exhibition artworks and a further dialogue about the project and its layers of insight into art, science, and the research ecosystem. | |
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This free, in-person event will have ASL interpretation provided and will feature short talks from several of the book’s co-authors, Nobel Laureate and Professor Emeritus Dr. Art McDonald, Director of the Agnes, Emelie Chhangur, Agnes Curator and book editor Sunny Kerr, and program coordinator Zac Kenny. Artists Anne Riley, Jol Thoms, and Nadia Lichtig will join remotely from Vancouver, the UK, and France, respectively and share their experiences with the project and discuss their contributions to the book. Mark Richardson and Charlotte Gagnier will also give an interactive taste of the classroom resource they developed to accompany the exhibit.
Join us at the Downtown branch of the Kingston Public Library on Monday, November 18th, from 5-7 PM for this special event. Copies of the book will be available for sale, and a few will be given away! Light refreshments will be provided.
More information here.
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Mark your calendars for Monday, December 2nd, as the McDonald Institute returns to Kingston for Astronomy on Tap.
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Celebrating Bruce Cleveland's retirement | |
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A pillar of the astroparticle physics research community and a staff scientist at SNOLAB for the past 28 years retired in October following a long and remarkably impactful career.
In a wonderful article on Bruce’s life and scientific contributions, Dr. Steven Sekula writes:
“Bruce is highly regarded for his development of the data analysis of low-statistics experiments. One of his notable publications was “The Analysis of Radioactive Decay with a Small Number of Counts by the Method of Maximum Likelihood” (Nucl.Instrum.Meth. 214 (1983) 451-458). Another highly significant paper was noted in the background information on the 2002 Nobel Prize issued by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in their announcement of the prize. This was “Measurement of the solar electron neutrino flux with the Homestake chlorine detector” (Bruce T. Cleveland et al 1998 ApJ 496 505), a publication on which Bruce was the lead author and which has been cited over 3,000 times!”
Read the full article here.
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2024 Community Meeting Proceedings | |
The McDonald Insitute held the annual Canadian Astroparticle Physics Community Meeting from Aug 6-9 at Queen's University. We were thrilled to host over 80 members of the community and accommodate another ~20 virtually through hybridization. Participants included students, postdocs, faculty, researchers, engineers, technicians, administrative staff, facility directors, and project PIs. | |
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As in previous years, the first day of the conference was focused on HQP (Highly Qualified Personnel) professional development, offering opportunities to network, work in groups, and engage in leadership and community development. The main conference featured a mix of institutional, facility, and project updates, providing attendees with a broad overview of both the scientific progress and direction and the status and future planning involved on an organizational level.
Summaries of the presentations have been added to the conference Indico site here for reference.
We look forward to next year's meetings!
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Meg Freer, Poet in Residence: SNOLAB, Then and Now | |
Meg Freer, left, and Dan Deptuck, right, visit SNO in 1994 (photo courtesy of Meg Freer). | |
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Freer is an established Kingston writer and the McDonald Institute’s Poet in Residence. She is developing a chapbook of verse dedicated to astroparticle physics planned for Spring 2025. She recently had an opportunity to once again visit the SNOLAB site, 30 years after her initial visit to the then-in-progress Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
"I appreciate this unusual privilege of visiting as a non-scientist," writes Freer in her field notes, "but even more unusual is that it was my second trip down into the Vale Creighton Mine. In September 1994, I was a guest of the Queen’s University physicists invited to tour the lab then being built for the original SNO project."
More of Freer's selected field notes can be read here. We look forward to sharing more from Freer as her residency continues.
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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 - Save The Date
The Graduate Instrumentation and Detector School (GRIDS) is a two-week summer school started in 2018 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 will open soon and close in late January 2025.
The website will open soon with registration details: https://indico.triumf.ca/event/574/
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PSI Start Program
Applications are now open for the 2025 PSI Start Program.
Perimeter Institute invites students to join its world-leading research community for a part-time 10-week online school in theoretical physics beginning in May 2025. In addition, some of these students will also come to Perimeter to participate in groundbreaking research through a paid internship program. All students will learn research tools and collaboration skills while immersed (online or in person) in the multi-disciplinary environment of the world’s largest independent theoretical physics research centre.
More information here.
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Monday, December 2nd at 2 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, 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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New opportunities in astroparticle physics!
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McDonald Institute Theory Fellowships
The Department of Physics and the Theoretical Physics Institute at the University of Alberta are inviting applications for McDonald Institute Theory Fellowships in the field of theoretical astroparticle physics and dark matter phenomenology to work with Prof. Nassim Bozorgnia. Candidates with interests and/or experience in dark matter physics are especially encouraged to apply. Top-ranked applications will be sent to the Canadian McDonald Institute Theory Evaluation Committee, which will allocate fellowships. First round offers will be made in mid-to-late January.
Deadline on Nov 25, 2024
Apply here.
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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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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 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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