The Faculty of Science is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Adrian Liu as Associate Dean, Graduate Education and Equity.
He began his five-year term on July 15, succeeding Biology Professor Laura Nilson in this role following her recent appointment as Chair of the Department of Biology.
Estimates of ordinary matter in the universe exceed the amount observed in stars and galaxies, leaving much of it unaccounted for. Researchers from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)/Fast Radio Bursts Collaboration, including McGill University and MIT, have developed a new method to seek out this “missing” matter by combining galaxy locations with fast radio burst detections. A fast radio burst, or FRB, is an ultrabright, millisecond flash of radio waves emitted by extremely energetic phenomena in the distant universe.
Researchers at McGill University have developed a novel device that generates sound-like particles known as phonons at extremely cold temperatures. The technology could be used to create phonon lasers, with possible applications in communications and medical diagnostics.
Professors Siva Reddy (Computer Science and Linguistics) and Katelin Schutz (Physics) have been named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows.
They are among the 126 early-career researchers in this year’s cohort of the prestigious two-year, $75,000 fellowship sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Fellows are nominated by their colleagues and evaluated based on their research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become leaders in their fields.
Congratulations to Dr. Bridget Andersen, who has received the Dr. Allie Vibert Douglas Astrophysics PhD Thesis Prize!
This past September, St. James Parish in Barbados celebrated We Gatherin’, a year-long festival of Barbadian heritage, culture and community. As part of the festivities, McGill’s Bellairs Research Institute hosted a day-long Science Adventure for local schoolchildren featuring a visit from McGill’s Redpath Museum and the Physics Outreach Committee.
Researchers in McGill’s Department of Physics have developed a new device that can trap and study DNA molecules without touching or damaging them. The device, which uses carefully tuned electric fields, offers scientists unprecedented control over how DNA behaves in real time, creating the opportunity for faster, more precise molecular analysis that could improve diagnostics, genome mapping and the study of disease-related molecules.
Construction is underway of CHORD, the most ambitious radio telescope project ever built on Canadian soil. Short for the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector, CHORD will give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to explore some of the most exciting and mysterious questions in astrophysics and cosmology, from Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and dark energy to the measurements of fundamental particles, and beyond.
Clockwise from top left: Robert Brandenberger (Physics), Christian Genest (Mathematics and Statistics), Joel Kamnitzer (Mathematics and Statistics), Bärbel Knäuper (Psychology), Milica Miočević (Psychology), Adrian Liu (Physics), Nagissa Mahmoudi (Earth and Planetary Sciences), and Galen Halverson (Earth and Planetary Sciences)
Eight Faculty of Science professors are among this year’s cohort of Distinguished James McGill Professors, James McGill Professors, and William Dawson Scholars.
Twenty-eight McGill researchers are among the winners of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Sometimes referred to as the Oscars of Science, Breakthrough prizes are awarded annually by the foundation of the same name for achievements in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics.
Congratulations to Jérôme Waldispühl and Attila Szantner (Computer Science), The Eclipse Task Force (Physics), and Andrew Gonzalez (Biology), who are among this year's winners of the President’s Prize for Public Engagement through Media!
In announcing the winners and runners-up, President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini noted that they were among a strong field of applicants spanning all 12 Faculties.
“This is further evidence that the sharing of knowledge and a love of learning are core McGill values,” he said.
Simon Caron-Huot, Professor and Canada Research Chair in High-Energy Physics, has been awarded a 2025 Dorothy Killam Fellowship. The prestigious Dorothy Killam Fellowship is part of Canada’s National Killam Program, which also includes the Killam Prize. Eight Fellowships were awarded across the country.
The Dorothy Killam Fellowship provides researchers with up to two years of relief from teaching and administrative duties to focus on transformative research that has potential to positively improve Canadian lives.
Professors Natalya Gomez (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and Daryl Haggard (Physics) have been awarded 2024 Arthur B. McDonald Fellowships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
These awards recognize early-career academic researchers, providing them with a $250,000 research grant over two years.
Physics Professor and National Geographic Explorer Cynthia Chiang is the subject of a new National Geographic article out today.
