Allie Vibert Douglas made history when she earned her PhD at McGill.
It was 1926 – a time when higher education wasn’t an option for most women.
By then, Douglas already had a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science from McGill – and had been named a member of the Order of the British Empire for her wartime service. With her PhD, she became the first Canadian woman to obtain a doctorate in astrophysics.
Professor Katelin Schutz of the Department of Physics has been named a 2024-2026 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar in the Gravity & the Extreme Universe program.
McGill University has received funding from the Canadian Space Agency for two separate projects dedicated to the study of exoplanets, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The projects are slated for completion by June 2025. Both studies will be led by Professor Nicolas Cowan.
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, including Professor Daryl Haggard at McGill University, has released new images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, using data from observations taken in April 2018.
Fleeting blasts of energy from space, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), are a cosmic enigma. A Canadian-led international team of researchers has published new findings suggesting that supernovae are the predominant contributors to forming sources that eventually produce FRBs.
In a new interview with Nature, Physics Professor and Shaw laureate Victoria Kaspi reflects on the inaugural Hong Kong Laureate Forum and how researchers can foster communication across different generations of scientists.
What was the most common question students asked at panel discussions?
Early in his career in physics, Martin Grant thought he had it all figured out.
“When I started, I said to myself ‘well, this is good. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do,” said Grant, Emeritus James McGill Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Science. “I’ve got the world’s greatest postdoc – me – and I’ll be able to do all the projects that I want to do pretty much by myself.”
“But I quickly realized that if I followed that route, I would be doing a disservice to the students.”
On November 3-5th, the McGill Physics Hackathon held its eighth annual event in person at the Rutherford Physics Building. The event attracted around 150 hackers, from CEGEP and undergraduate backgrounds, who joined forces to produce spectacular projects.
Congratulations to all those who participated!
In a ceremony today at Simon Fraser University, the Honourable Terry Beech, Minister of Citizens’ Services, announced that Professor Jason Hessels has been named the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Transient Astrophysics at McGill University.
The results of the 2022 Canada Excellence Research Chairs competition were announced this morning at Simon Fraser University by the Honourable Terry Beech, Minister of Citizens’ Services. The announcement was made on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and Ted Hewitt, President of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Chair of the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat Steering Committee.
Sixteen McGill researchers have been included on the Highly Cited Researchers™ (HCRs) list, as published by Clarivate. To be included in the prestigious list, researchers must rank in the top 1 per cent worldwide for their fields and publications in the Web of Science index. In being named to this list, these investigators join a cohort of 6,849 individuals around the world who have been recognized for their academic contributions.
On November 3, the McGill Physics Hackathon kicked off its eighth annual event. Over the course of 24 hours, spread over three days, participants formed teams and took over the Rutherford Physics Building in a friendly computer programming competition. The goal? Use any programming language to demonstrate a concept or phenomenon in the physical sciences. At the end of the weekend, projects were judged based on their technical execution, ability to clearly communicate what was accomplished, and aesthetics.
Paul Wiseman, Professor of Physics and Chemistry at McGill, has been named the 2024 Fellow of the Biophysical Society of Canada for his major contributions to the development of new quantitative microscopy tools to reveal hidden properties of biomolecules.
On September 23rd, the Office of Science Outreach, STEMM Diversity @ McGill and TSI Outreach hosted interactive family workshops for Science Literacy Week. Over 150 people participated, learning about tree growth, the diversity of science and scientists, the survival of extremophiles and more!
When you learn you’ve been awarded Canada’s largest scholarship for STEM studies, it’s a pretty heady moment. Just ask some of McGill’s new Schulich Leaders. These new McGill students hail from New Brunswick to Vancouver and are among the 100 recipients in Canada this year of Schulich Leader Scholarships, valued at up to $120,000.
