2024 FALL CONVOCATION
The Department of Physics would like to congratulate Dr. Aaron Bondy on his graduation! Aaron received his diploma in the Ph.D. Physics program on October 17th, 2024.
Aaron celebrating with our depatment head, Dr. Steven Rehse and professor, Dr. Chitra Rangan.
Congratulations Nathan!
Physics Ph.D. candidate, Nathan Drouilard not only works hard in his studies but also works hard as an athlete! Nathan represented the University of Windsor as part of the Canadian FISU team for the World University Triathlon Championships this past August in Poland! What a great accomplishment.
Defence Notice for Mr. Aaron T. Bondy
Aaron will be presenting his thesis for the degree of Ph.D. in Physics on Monday, September 9th, 2024 at 12pm. We hope you can all join us in Essex Hall, room 287, to support him as he defends. Please click here for the full defence notice poster.
Fall 2024 Physics Graduate Assistantship (graduate students) and Teaching Assistant (undergrad students) Notices
Please click on the following links to view the notices:
Application forms are available at this link: Application for Assistantships
Posting is now CLOSED. Thank you for all who have applied.
NEWS from the 2024 CAP Congress!
The Canadian Association of Physicists annual congress was held in London, Ontario this year.
Hadia Malik (BSc, Medical Physics) placed third in the student poster competition in the Division of Physics in Medicine and Biology.
Evan Petrimoulx (4th Year, Physics) placed second in the student oral competition in the Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics-Canada.
Abo-Bakr Emara (PhD student, Physics) received an honourable mention in the student poster competition in the Division of Particle Physics.
Everyone did such an excellent job, you should all be proud of yourselves!
More students showing off their posters. Awesome job everyone!
Dr. Chitra Rangan caught up with some alumni.
University Professor Emeritus Dr. Gordon Drake was inaugurated into the second class of CAP Fellows in 2024.
Congratulations to all of our Spring 2024 Graduates!
Dr. Roman Maev Earns Honors for Research on Non-Destructive Testing
Congratulations to Luc Serre, "Friend of Science"!
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Mr. Luc Serre, M.Sc., MCCPM was selected to receive a 2024 "Friend of Science Award" by the faculty of Science. Luc, a medical physicist at the Windsor Regional Cancer Centre, was awarded this honor at the recent Spring recongition of excellence event. Luc, who is an alumnus of UWindsor Physics (B.Sc., 2006), was recognized for his many years of dedication and assitance to the UWindsor Medical Physics program. Luc has led tours, taught courses, given guest lectures, run laboratory events, provided career guidance, counselling , and mentorship for undergraduate studnets, and has overseen physics co-op students during their placements at WRCC.
Shown below is Luc receiving his award from the Head of Physics and three undergradaute physics majors before a tour of the radiation oncology facilities at WRCC.
Free Public Talk About the Solar Eclipse!
Steve Pellarin, Department of Physics astronomy instructor and Canadian National Coordinator for Astronomy Outreach for the International Astronomical Union will be delivering a public seminar about the solar eclipse on Friday, April 5th @ 7:30 p.m. in room 102 Toldo Health Education Centre. This seminar is open to the public (on and off campus). All are welcome to attend. Read more about this in the UWindsor Daily News!
Celebrating Dr. Elena Maeva!
Dr. Maeva officially retired on December 31, 2023. The physics department held a gathering to celeberate Dr. Maeva on this great accomplishment. Congratulations and wishing Dr. Maeva all the best on her next adventure!
Recipients of the 2023 Drake and Guiry Graduate Scholarships!
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Mr. Lucas Montcalm has been selected to be the 2023 recipient of the Tom & Mylo Drake Physics Research Prize. Lucas will be receiving an award of $1200 to recognize his excellence in physics.
Professor Gordon Drake and his wife Dr. Mary Louise Drake have chosen to endow this prize which is awarded annually to recognize and celebrate excellence in physics research achievements in honour of his family, Tom and Mylo Drake.
Lucas is an M.Sc. student working with Professor Jeffrey Rau. Below is a picture of Lucas with Professor Rehse and Professor Drake.
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Mr. Aaron Bondy has been selected to be the 2023 recipient of the Dr. John David Guiry Graduate Physics Scholarship. Aaron will be receiving an award of $1000 to recognize his excellence in physics. Below is a picture of Aaron with Professor Rehse.
Aaron Bondy is a Ph.D. student working with Professor Gordon Drake.
This scholarship was endowed by Mr. Jamie Chouinard in memory of Dr. John David Guiry to award a prize to a graduate student in Physics who exhibits the greatest record of scholarly achievement with a special preference shown for students from Southwestern Ontario.
The Department of Physics is very appreciative of the professors who served on the adjudication committee. All the scholarships this year were very competitive, and the committee expressed its deep admiration for the efforts and accomplishments of all the students who applied. As always, the Department of Physics and the Faculty of Science are indebted to those very generous families who continue to support the activities of its students by endowing these competitive scholarships. Their continuing efforts to provide these opportunities for the students is so very important and we are very grateful to all of them for their vision and commitment.
So congratulations to Lucas and Aaron. And to all the applicants, well done.
Recipients of the 2023 Krause Scholarship Award
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that this year’s co-recipients of the Dr. Lucjan Krause Undergraduate Scholarship in Physics are August Baughan and Hadia Malik. August and Hadia will both be splitting the award of $1000 to recognize their excellence in physics and their important contributions to the Department.
August Baughan is a 4th Year Honours Medical Physics major.
Hadia Malik is a 4th Year Honours Medical Physics major.
August is currently serving as co-President of the Physics Club and Hadia is serving as President of the Women in Science club . Below is a picture of August (right) and Hadia (center) with Professor Rehse.
Professor Lucjan Krause headed the Department of Physics through the formative decades of the 1960’s and ‘70s. Dr. Krause came here in 1958 from Memorial University of New Foundland and became the second Head of the Department in 1959. Under his guidance, the Department of Physics quickly developed a reputation as being one of the best Physics Departments in all of Canada. This scholarship has been established by Professor Krause’s family in his name to recognize deserving undergraduate students in any Physics program who through their academic and scientific endeavors bring recognition and honour to the University of Windsor’s Department of Physics.
The Department of Physics is very appreciative of the professors who served on the adjudication committee. All the scholarships this year were very competitive, and the committee expressed its deep admiration for the efforts and accomplishments of all the students who applied. As always, the Department of Physics and the Faculty of Science are indebted to those very generous families who continue to support the activities of its students by endowing these competitive scholarships. Their continuing efforts to provide these opportunities for the students is so very important and we are very grateful to all of them for their vision and commitment.
So congratulations to August and Hadia. And to all the applicants, well done.
Congratulations to Trevor MacIntosh!
Trevor successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis in Physics on December 13, 2023.
The title of his thesis was 'Non-Hermitian physics achieved via non-local Gilbert Damping'
Below is Trevor and his supervisor Dr. Jeffrey Rau.
Trevor's defense committee included, Dr. Jeremy Rawson (BioChem), Dr. TJ Hammond (Physics), and Dr. Jeffrey Rau (Physics).
Wishing Trevor all the best in all his future endeavours!
Contratulations to Nathan Drouillard!
On December 11, 2023, Nathan successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis in Physics.
The title of his thesis was 'Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy with Widely Tunable Probe Pulse for Measuring Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus in the Great Lakes'
Below is Nathan with his supevisor, Dr. TJ Hammond.
Nathan's defense committee included, Dr.Aaron Fisk,(School of the Environment), Dr. Steven Rehse, (Physics), and Dr. Chitra Rangan, (Physics).
Congratulations to our new Physicist, Nathan! Wishing him all the best on his next endeavour!
Physics Defense Notices
Trevor MacIntosh will be defending his M.Sc. thesis on December 13, 2023 at 2pm in Essex Hall, room 287.
'Non-Hermitian physics achieved via non-local Gilbert Damping'
Nathan Drouillard will be defending his M.Sc. thesis on December 11, 2023 at 10am in Essex Hall, room 287.
'Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy with Widely Tunable Probe Pulse for Measuring Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus in the Great Lakes'
National association confers honour on physics professor emeritus
Professor emeritus Gordon Drake has been named a fellow of the Canadian Association of Physicists.
Devoting his career to advancing physics research has earned professor emeritus Gordon Drake a 2023 Fellowship with the Canadian Association of Physicists.
It is the second year the association is awarding fellowships; in the first year, only recent Nobel Prize winners Donna Strickland and Art McDonald were so honoured.
The fellowship program recognizes members who have made significant contributions to the Canadian physics community, research, in teaching, in the advancement of technology, or in service to the association.
“It all starts with physics,” says Dr. Drake. “From medical applications such as MRIs and PET scans to semi-conductors, lasers, and the internet — people don’t realize it all starts in physics labs and that is the importance of pure research.”
When he retired in 2019, Drake’s career spanned almost five decades at the University of Windsor and the publication of at least 250 papers and journal articles. He continues to make research contributions and is currently applying to renew his Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant.
The fellowship recognizes Drake’s development of new measurement tools through combined application of both high-precision theory and experiment to atoms.
“We interact with labs around the world and then we compare our calculations from first principles with lab measurements, looking for discrepancies and an indication of new physics,” he says.
“You need theory and experimentation from the ongoing development of laser power and versatility applied to high-precision measurements and the development of computational technology which allows us to perform companion calculations.”
Drake’s has also been passionate about training the next generation of physicists. Over the past 50 years, he has had nearly 60 undergraduate and graduate students as well as post-doctoral fellows under his tutelage and he continues to support students in his lab.
“These are the people who are leading the way in developing new ideas, new techniques, and new discoveries in physics for our modern way of life.”
Physics department head Steven Rehse says becoming a CAP Fellow is one of the highest honours that a Canadian physicist can aspire to. He adds it is both well-deserved and not surprising for it to be bestowed on one of the department’s highest profile faculty members.
“It is reflective of a lifetime of academic and scientific achievement, as well as devoted service to advancing the profession of physics in Canada,” says Dr. Rehse.
“As his citation stated, he has not only demonstrated internationally recognized research achievements at the highest level in the field of atomic physics, also his contributions to the profession are far too numerous to enumerate as they span decades of consistent service."
Drake was awarded the 1979 CAP Herzberg Medal, the 1994 CAP Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Physics, and the 2015 CAP Peter Kirby Medal. He served as president of the association 2000-01. In addition to his research activities, Drake was president of the Windsor University Faculty Association for two terms, physics department head for 15 years, and principal of Canterbury College from 2008 until 2023.
Winter 2024 GA/TA Notice
Application forms are available at this link:
Posting Notice: Department of Physics Winter 2024 GA/TA Notice
Completed applications must be submitted via email to: Kimberly Lefebvre, kimber1@uwindsor.ca.
For any questions, please contact Kimberly Lefebvre or MS Teams chat.
Deadline to apply is Monday, November 20, 2023.
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Fall 2023 Convocation
A huge congratulations goes out to these Physicists who received their diplomas Thursday, October 12th!
Pictured here are our graduates, Madison Hearn, B.Sc. Honours in Medical Physics and Sara Moezzi, M.Sc. of Physics with her supervisor, Dr. Chitra Rangan. Our Physics department is very proud of all the hard work all our students put in and seeing them acheive their goal at graduation is incredible. We wish Madison and Sara all the best in all their future endeavours!
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Congratulations go out to our latest Physics M.Sc. recipient, Sara Moezzi!
Sara defended on August 9, 2023 and did an excellent job presenting her thesis titled "Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in an Ensemble of Three-Level Lambda Systems." All the best goes out to Sara on her next journey!
Sara is supervised by Dr. Chitra Rangan and her committee members included Dr. Jeffrey Rau (Physics) and Dr. Pooyah Moradian Zedeh (Computer Science).
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Fall 2023 Physics Graduate Assistantship (graduate students) and Teaching Assistant (undergrad students) Notices
Please click on the following links to view the notices:
GATA Posting Notice - Upper Labs
Application forms are available at this link: Application for Assistantships
Deadline for receiving applications is July 20, 2023.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Congratulations to all the 2023 Spring Graduates!!!
The University of Windsor Faculty of Science celebrated its spring convocation on Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Congratulations to all the Honours Physics and Honours Medical Physics Recipients. Celebrated at the convocation were:
Mark Armstrong, M.Sc. Physics
“Optimization in MRI Experiment Design and Image Reconstruction” (Advisor: Associate Professor Dan Xiao)
Emma J.M. Blanchette, M.Sc. Physics
“Detection and Diagnosis of Bacterial Pathogens in Blood and Urine Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy” (Advisor: Professor Steven Rehse)
Honours B.Sc. Physics
Cloe Clement (with Distinction)
Rocco Falsetta (with Distinction)
Coulson Teare
Honours B.Sc. Medical Physics
Jordyn Matthews (with Great Distinction)
Abbey Richer (with Distinction)
Nikhil Shad (with Great Distinction)
Emily Tracey (with Great Distinction)
Honours B.Sc. Physics and High Technology
Ozair Ahmed
Felvina Khunt (with Distinction)
Honours B.Sc. Physics and Computer Science
Jonathan Doyle (with Distinction)
Honours B.Sc. Physics and Mathematics
Griffin Howson (with Great Distinction)
Honours B.Sc. Mathematics and Physics
Lamies Sati (with Distinction)
Not pictured is the Department of Physics Board of Governors Medal recipient, Ms. Emily Tracey, who received her medal for being the graduating student with the highest grade point average. Way to go Emily. Shown is Emily presenting a poster of her undergraduate research and giving an oral presentation of her results at an international spectroscopy conference in the Fall of 2022.
Faculty and Staff Recognized for 25 years of Service
The University of Windsor Department of Human Resources recently honoured employees who have contributed 25 years of service to the University. Recognized at the event were University Professor Dr. Roman Maev (27 years of service) and laboratory coordinator Mr. Aldo DiCarlo (26 years of service). Shown below are Maev (middle) and DiCarlo (right) at a luncheon honouring their service. Their years of dedication to the Department are much appreciated!
Congratulations to our newest M.Sc. recipient, Mr. Mark Armstrong.
A big congratulations goes out to Mr. Mark Armstrong (pictured, at left), who successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis, “Optimization in MRI Experiment Design and Image Reconstruction," on January 17th, 2023.
Mark is supervised by Professor Dan Xiao and his committee was comprised of Dr. Dilian Yang (Mathematics & Statistics) and Dr. Jeffrey Rau (Physics).
Great job, Mark, and congratulations.
M.Sc. Defence, Mark Armstrong (Tuesday, January 17, 9AM - Essex 288-1)
Mark Armstrong will defend his M.Sc. Thesis “Optimization in MRI experiment design and image reconstruction” supervised by Dr. Dan Xiao on Tuesday, January 17 at 9am in Essex Hall, room 288-1.
Defense Announcement (PDF)
Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2022 Krause Scholarship!
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that both Ms. Jordyn Matthews and Mr. Griffin Howson have been selected to be the 2022 recipients of the Lucjan Krause Scholarship. Jordyn and Griffin will both be receiving an award of $1000 to recognize their excellence in physics and their important contributions to the Department.
Jordyn Matthews is a 4th Year Honours Medical Physics major.
Griffin Howson is a 4th Year Combined Honours Physics and Mathematics major.
They both are currently serving as co-Presidents of the Physics Club. Shown below are Jordyn and Griffin with the two previous winners of the Krause Scholarship, Emma Blanchette and Emily Tracey.
Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2022 Drake and Guiry Graduate Scholarship!
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Mr. Aaron Bondy has been selected to be the 2022 recipient of the Tom & Mylo Drake Physics Research Prize. Aaron will be receiving an award of $1200 to recognize his excellence in physics. Aaron Bondy is a Ph.D. student working with Professor Gordon Drake.
Professor Gordon Drake and his wife Dr. Mary Louise Drake have chosen to endow this prize which is awarded annually to recognize and celebrate excellence in physics research achievements in honour of his family, Tom and Mylo Drake. Aaron is shown below receiving his award from Dr. Rehse.
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Mr. Nathan Drouillard has been selected to be the 2022 recipient of the Dr. John David Guiry Graduate Physics Scholarship. Nathan will be receiving an award of $1000 to recognize his excellence in physics. Nathan Drouillard is an M.Sc. student working with Professor TJ Hammond. Nathan is shown above receiving his award from Dr. Rehse.
This scholarship was endowed by Mr. Jamie Chouinard in memory of Dr. John David Guiry to award a prize to a graduate student in Physics who exhibits the greatest record of scholarly achievement with a special preference shown for students from Southwestern Ontario.
Congratulations to our newest M.Sc. recipient, Ms. Emma Blanchette.
A big congratulations goes out to Ms. Emma Blanchette (pictured, at left), who successfully defended her M.Sc. thesis, “Detection and Diagnosis of Bacterial Pathogens in Blood and Urine Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy,” on December 13th, 2022.
Emma is supervised by Professor Steven Rehse and her committee was comprised of Dr. Andrew Hubberstey and Dr. TJ Hammond (Physics).
Great job, Emma, and congratulations.
M.Sc. Defence, Emma Blanchette (Tuesday, December 13th 2022, 10:00AM - Essex Hall Room 287)
Emma Blanchette will defend her M.Sc. Thesis "Detection and Diagnosis of Bacterial Pathogens in Blood and Urine Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy" supervised by Dr. Steven Rehse.
M.Sc. Defence, Dmitrios Shinas (Friday Sept. 16th 2022, 1:30PM - Essex 287)
Dmitrios Shinas will defend his M.Sc. Thesis "Optimization of an Ultrasonic Non-destructive Evaluation Technique of Laser Brazing" supervised by Dr. Roman Maev on Friday September 16th at 1:30PM in Essex 287.
Physics Professor Recognized for Teaching Excellence
The University of Windsor Alumni Association bestowed its Alumni Award for Distinguished Contributions to University Teaching on physics professor Steven Rehse during Spring Convocation ceremonies on June 16, 2022.
The award honours faculty members — nominated by colleagues, alumni, and students — as incentive and encouragement for achieving excellence in teaching and learning at the University of Windsor. A full description can be found at the UWindsor Daily News here.
Two Physics Students Place in Recent CAP Student Presentation Competition
We are pleased to announce that the UWindsor Physics Department provided two winners in the student presentation competition at the recent 2022 Canadian Association of Physicists Annual Congress (hosted at McMaster University). There were approximately 200 student competitors, according to the conference organizers.
4th Year undergraduate Griffin Howson (Combined Honours Physics and Mathematics) placed 3rd in the Division of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics oral presentation category for his talk, "Electrical Control of Magnetism in Kitaev Materials." It is worth nothing that Griffin beat out many graduate students in this competition. Griffin is supervised by Dr. Jeffrey Rau. M.Sc. student Emma Blanchette placed 2nd in the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, Canada oral presentation category for her talk, "Rapid Detection of Bacterial Pathogens in Water and Clinical Specimens Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy." Emma is supervised by Dr. Steven Rehse. Shown are Griffin and Emma with the other recognized winners at the Congress. Congratulations to Griffin and Emma!
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Professor Gordon Drake and PhD Candidate Aaron Bondy Publish in Science.
The Department of Physics wishes to congratulate Professor Gordon Drake and his PhD student Aaron Bondy who appeared in the Windsor Star paper recently (04/13/22) for their work as part of a team resolving small discrepancies in the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) through their high precision calculations. Through these calculations and experiments they are able to test the fundamental laws of the universe with incredibly high precision in their search for new physics that would reveal new truths about the way the universe works. 
A link to the Windsor Star article is here:
Although it was not mentioned in the newspaper (because the average reader would not understand the significance of it), the reason this story was brought to light was because Dr. Drake, Aaron, and their collaborators just published their results in the prestigious journal "Science" which is a big deal for anyone in any physics department in the world. Dr. Drake, Bondy, and their co-authors at the Australian National University (ANU) published the article in Science on April 8.
You can see a prepublication version of the paper at https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.00149 A PDF of that arXiv is attached here.
The citation for the Science article is: SCIENCE • 7 Apr 2022 • Vol 376, Issue 6589 • pp. 199-203 • DOI: 10.1126/science.abk2502
Congratulations to our newest Ph.D. recipient, Dr. Eva Schulhoff.
A HUGE congratulations goes out to Dr. Eva Schulhoff who successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation, “Calculated Charge State Distributions and Anisotropies Following the Beta Decay of 6He,” on January 18th, 2022.
Eva was supervised by Distinguished University Professor Emeritus Dr. Gordon Drake and her committee was comprised of Dr. Dan Xiao, Dr. Jeffrey Rau, Dr. Drew Marquardt, and Dr. P. Mueller from Argonne National Laboratory served as the External Examiner.
Congratulations Eva on all your years of hard work. The Department of Physics is very proud of you.
Congratulations to our newest M.Sc. recipient, Ms. Layale Bazzi.
A big congratulations goes out to Ms. Layale Bazzi, who successfully defended her M.Sc. thesis, “Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methodology Development,” on January 14th, 2022.
Layale is supervised by Assistant Professor Dan Xiao and her committee was comprised of Dr. Steven Rehse (Physics) and Dr. Drew Marquardt (Chemistry and Biochemistry).
Great job, Layale, and congratulations.
Congratulations to our newest M.Sc. recipient, Ms. Dilrukshi Jayalath Arachchige.
A big congratulations goes out to Ms. Dilrukshi Jayalath Arachchige who successfully defended her M.Sc. thesis, “Simple Measurement of Field Reconstruction,” on December 16, 2021.
Dilrukshi is supervised by Assistant Professor TJ Hammond and her committee was comprised of Dr. Dan Xiao (Physics) and Dr. Holger Eichorn (Chemistry and Biochemistry).
Great job, Dilrukshi, and congratulations.
Congratulations to our newest M.Sc. recipient, Mr. Jake Stephen.
A big congratulations goes out to Mr. Jake Stephen who successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis, “Femtosecond Pulse Compression Via Self-Phase Modulation in 1-Decanol,” on December 3, 2021. 
Jake is supervised by Assistant Professor TJ Hammond and his committee was comprised of Dr. Steven Rehse (Physics) and Dr. Nick Vukotic (Chemistry and Biochemistry).
Great job, Jake, and congratulations.
2nd Year Physics Student Grace Johnson Awarded the 2021 Baylis Physics Research Internship.
The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that the 2021 Baylis Physics Research Internship will be awarded to Grace Johnson (2nd year, BSC Honours Physics (Co-op).
This Internship annually awards $1000 to a second-year student enrolled in Physics or Medical Physics to support their work on a research project with a faculty member in the Department of Physics. The goal of the Internship is to expose the student to the process of performing academic physics research and to more broadly introduce the student to the activities of the Department of Physics and the people in it.
Grace currently possesses a 97.167 GPA and as a high-school student worked in the Chemistry lab of Dr. Simon Rondeau-Gagne as a co-op student. Grace’s research supervisor is Dr. Steven Rehse and she intends to investigate the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy on both Mars rovers: Curiosity (the ChemCam instrument package) and Perseverance (the SuperCam instrument package). According to Grace, “Astrophysics and spectroscopy are two subjects that I am extremely interested in and that I would like to pursue a career in. Being able to gain research experience in this area of physics so early in my career would be extremely beneficial for my future, and I would enjoy it very much. I love learning about different theories and am excited to see how they are tested and used in a real-life laboratory setting.”
This internship has been established by Professor William Baylis and his wife, Mrs. Bobbye Baylis to recognize deserving first year undergraduate students in any Physics program who demonstrate exceptional potential and to invest in that potential by engaging them in advanced research opportunities with a faculty mentor. A full descriptions of Grace's award can be found at the UWindsor Daily News here.
Physics student Emma Blanchette selected for Best Student Paper Award at international conference.
UWindsor physics MSc student Emma Blanchette (BSc Honours Physics, 2021) recently won the Best Student Paper Award at the 48th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science. This conference was held virtually September 12 to 16, 2021.
Emma’s talk entitled, “The use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for bacterial detection, quantification, and identification,” was chosen from amongst all student submissions to compete in a special live virtual student competition session with 11 other students from all over the world. Her paper and presentation were selected to be one of two winners out of this group of finalists, earning her the award, which comes with a certificate and a $500 USD cash prize. She was also recognized publically at a special award presentation ceremony on Wednesday, September 15th.
Emma describes her work this way: “I am investigating a laser-based technique to detect and diagnose bacterial infections, potentially in minutes. Because this technique is so fast, it has a lot of potential for improving patient outcomes, reducing death rates, and stopping the antibiotic resistance crisis. Our advancements in this field could make laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy a very important medical diagnostic tool in the future.”
Blanchette, who also recently took second place in the Best Student Poster Presentation competition at the Canadian Association of Physicists annual congress, works in the lab of Steve Rehse, and is a former recipient of the 2020 Lucjan Krause Scholarship in the Department of Physics. A full description can be found here. A video of Emma presenting her talk is provided here. A link to a PDF copy of the presentation slides is provided here.
Congratulations to our newest M.Sc. recipient, Mr. Cody McLeod.
A big congratulations goes out to Mr. Cody McLeod who successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis, “Variational Energies for the Rydberg P States of Helium,” on August 26, 2021.
Cody is supervised by University Professor Emeritus Gordon Drake and his committee was comprised of Dr. Jeffrey Rau (Physics) and Dr. James Gauld (Chemistry and Biochemistry).
Great job, Cody, and congratulations.