Happy New Year! We hope your holidays were joyous and restful and that you're ready to enter the new year with determination!

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We are thrilled to present the next installment of the George & Maureen Ewan Memorial Lecture Series on Wednesday, January 17th, and are very excited to have our own Dr. Art McDonald as the speaker. Dr. McDonald will talk about the world-leading research he's been involved in and how underground neutrino and dark matter experiments can help us understand more about some of the most fundamental questions about our universe. This free event will be held at the magnificent Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston.

Please register for tickets here.

The previous Ewan Lecture, featuring Dr. Jim Peebles had nearly 400 attendees! Make sure to register, and please share this event with anyone else who may be interested!



The Advancing EDII Fund for Astroparticle Physics

The McDonald Institute is piloting a new EDII funding opportunity in support of the astroparticle physics community. The Advancing EDII Fund for Astroparticle Physics supports initiatives focused on expanding capacity within community building, training, and research environments.

Applications may seek up to $1,000 (Stream 1) and $2,500 (Stream 2 and 3) for each EDII initiative.  

Applications will be reviewed on a continuous basis until March 15, 2024. Initiatives can take place up to June 15, 2024.  

Please see the Advancing EDII Fund website for more information, application guidelines, and documents.

Art McDonald speaks on Bouchard Report’s recommendations

Art McDonald’s decade of advocacy for improved long-term fundamental science report included a late 2023 interview and panel appearance at the 2023 Canadian Science Policy Conference, where he had a chance to comment on the recent release of the federal government’s “Bouchard Report” (Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System).

Dr. McDonald was interviewed at the 15th CSPC Conference in Ottawa in November 2023. He provided his perspectives on the similarities and differences between the Bouchard Report on the status of science in Canada and the earlier “Naylor Report”  that he was a member of (“Investing in Canada's Future - Strengthening the Foundations of Canadian Research”).

Both reports recommend improved and stable funding for major research facilities, as well as  forming an external advisory committee to provide advice to the government on science and technology with an emphasis on long-term strategic research planning.

On the topic of major research facilities, Dr. McDonald said these are national assets but are currently not operating with governmental authority, similar to national laboratories in the United States and other leading research nations. Both reports recommend a new framework where established funding agencies continues to be responsible for funding peer-reviewed investigator-led research, but the Canadian government establishes more direct engagement in the operation of the larger facilities. This would provide greater funding predictability and a much clearer chain of authority for committing Canadian resources to long-term and large-scale multinational research projects. Dr. McDonald also noted that tailored support mechanisms for Canada’s academic community working within large-scale projects needs to also be part of such a transformation in funding support.

See the full interview conducted by CPSC’s president, Dr. Mehrdad Hariri, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tZFa3sLVfk



HQP Pooled Resources Round 10 Competition – OPEN

This round of the HQP pooled resource competition aims to fund undergraduate astroparticle physics researchers working in Canada with a start date in May 2024 for the summer period. Funding for positions is available to those pursuing astroparticle physics research in Canada aligned with the McDonald Institute Research Strategy.



Cross-Disciplinary Internship Program

- DEADLINE EXTENDED : Jan 26th -

The Cross-Disciplinary Internship (CDI) program provides a salary reimbursement for full- or part-time students registered in non-physics majors to participate in astroparticle physics research. Student applicants can be enrolled in any post-secondary level; college diploma, undergraduate, or graduate studies. This program links students with leading astroparticle physics researchers in Canada for opportunities to expand research collaborations, knowledge, and research-based skills.

2023 CDI participants:

Sharleen Chebet, an undergrad at Carleton, spent her Cross-Disciplinary Internship helping the Queen's Facility for Isotope Research with the automation of data presentation and data reduction for mineral dark matter detectors.

Elvira Hufschmid is an artist researcher and process designer working in art and science collaboration. Her Cross-Disciplinary Internship with Renée Hložek explored how metaphor may act as common code between art and science.



Danika Watson is a graduate student in physical geography at Queen's. She made a zine (a short comic) about her internship working on Silicon avalanche photon detector characterization.

McDonald Institute Student Achievement Awards

The McDonald Institute is accepting nominations to recognize HQP student contributions to the Canadian astroparticle physics community. The awards include a $250 honorarium and certificate of award. If you have a current or recently-graudated student you would like to nominate, you can fill out a simple nomination form for the following categories:

• Research Contribution (Click HERE to submit a nomination) This recognition is suitable for a student whose scholarly work has significantly advanced particle astrophysics research in the last year. 
• Outreach & Education (Click HERE to submit a nomination) This recognition honours a student who has made a major contribution to the public’s understanding and appreciation of particle astrophysics and adjacent disciplines. 
• Equity Leadership (Click HERE to submit a nomination) This recognition is applicable to any student whose leadership advances inclusion and belonging of a socially diverse talent pool within Canadian astroparticle physics research.
• Innovation Leadership (Click HERE to submit a nomination)This recognition is applicable to any student whose novel approaches to problem solving have yielded benefit to the Canadian astroparticle physics community. Nominations must demonstrate how the student’s interventions have influenced the actions/planning of other members of the community. This award recognizes both ingenuity and the ability to motivate others toward common goals. 

TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR AN AWARD:

Nominees must have been enrolled as a student at a Canadian post-secondary institution during calendar 2023. This applies to any college or university undergraduate or graduate student meeting this criterion.

• Nominees’ significant work or achievements for award consideration occurred between January 1, 2023 and December 22, 2023. Nominators may reference the continuing impact of eligible work or achievements beyond December 22, 2022.
• Nominees’ eligible achievements and contributions have benefited, or will be likely to benefit, any portion of the Canadian astroparticle physics community beyond the nominee themself. 
• Nominees have not been recognized by a McDonald Institute HQP Acheivement award in the same category within the last three calendar years.

NOTE:

Nominators may submit more than one nomination form. Eligible nominees may be forwarded for consideration in multiple award categories, but each nomination must be unique.



SNOLAB Releases New Strategic Plan

SNOLAB has published its 2023-2029 Strategic Plan and it is now available on the SNOLAB website.

The plan outlines three key areas of strategic focus and how they work together to realize the vision of SNOLAB as the world's leading underground laboratory.

• Drive breakthrough discoveries at the frontiers of underground science.
• Foster and develop diverse talent in an inclusive environment.
• And drive to provide cutting-edge infrastructure that will enable SNOLAB to take advantage of a diverse range of underground research opportunities.



Congratulations to Nancy Ross!

Last month, Queen's Vice Principal (Research), Nancy Ross was awarded the 2023 Melinda S. Meade Distinguished Scholarship Award in Health and Medical Geography from the American Association of Geographers.

Dr. Ross is the chair of the McDonald Institute Board of Management and also sits on the SNOLAB Board of Directors.

We congratulate Dr. Ross on this award and are thankful for her continued support of our astroparticle physics research community.

Read more about the award and Dr. Ross here.

CAPSS 2024 - Apply Now

The Canadian Astroparticle Physics Summer School (CAPSS) is a free week-long undergraduate school that will introduce students to the current topics in the field of astroparticle physics. The school is held at Queen’s University and then underground at SNOLAB. CAPSS will be held May 5 - May 11, 2024. The application period closes on Feb 9, so check out this link for more information: https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/capss/capss-info/.



GRIDS 2024 - 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 for those students and postdocs with limited experience with experimental hardware. GRIDS 2024 will be held June 3rd - 14th, 2024. The application period will open soon and close in late February 2024. More information can be found here: grids.trumf.ca.



Explore opportunities in astroparticle physics!

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!



Would you like to be more involved in the research community? We invite motivated students and early career researchers to participate in the McDonald Institute Highly Qualified Personnel Advisory Committee (HQPAC). The committee meets regularly to discuss issues and strategize long-term goals for ways to enhance the experience of everyone in astroparticle physics. Reach out to Zac Kenny at communications@mcdonaldinstitute.ca for more information.

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.

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