David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics

American Academy of Arts & Sciences

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Yanqin Wu (supplied image)

Yanqin Wu, a professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science's David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, has been named an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is among the oldest scholarly societies in North America and its members rank among the world’s most accomplished scientists, scholars and artists. Wu is one of 250 members newly elected to the academy in recognition of their excellence in their respective fields and invited to uphold the academy's mission of promoting engagement across disciplines.

Wu studies the interiors of planets, the structure of proto-planetary discs and circumstellar dusty debris discs, the organization of planetary systems and the formation history of moons and satellites in the solar system. She is also exploring the evolution of the Kuiper Belt – a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, believed to contain many comets, asteroids and other small bodies made largely of frozen gases.

“It is a definite honour, though there are many other scientists whom I consider equally or more deserving,” she says. “So this is more of a motivator for continuing the pursuit, and hopefully this helps me to attract good students and post-docs. Also, I’m interested in raising science literacy in society at large, so maybe this title will help a bit in that.”

Read the American Academy of Arts & Sciences announcement

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Maria Drout awarded Newton Lacy Pierce Prize

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 18:45:22 +0000

Maria Drout awarded Newton Lacy Pierce Prize

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 01/17/2024 - 13:45

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Assistant Professor Maria Drout (supplied image)

Maria Drout, an assistant professor at the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, has been awarded the 2024 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize by the American Astronomical Society.

The prize is awarded annually to an astronomer under the age of 36 for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research based on measurements of radiation from an astronomical object.

Drout, who is an associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, was part of the first team to see a source of gravitational waves in visible light, created by two merging neutron stars in a galaxy 130 million light-years away. More recently, she helped uncover the first-known population of helium stars stripped in binaries, developing a new survey in the ultraviolet spectrum to find them.

Drout said the accolade is a “huge honour,” noting that it’s especially meaningful because it recognizes a time in her career that was deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I started my faculty position in 2018, so I had just a year and a half before the pandemic hit,” Drout said. “Then we had to figure out how to make the research group work almost entirely remotely for a couple of years, both in terms of access to telescopes and even just how students worked with me and worked with each other. It was very difficult to navigate.”

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Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Ting Li and Corliss Sio recognized with Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence

lanthierj — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 21:59:24 +0000

Ting Li and Corliss Sio recognized with Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence

lanthierj Tue, 12/12/2023 - 16:59

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Department of Earth Sciences

Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence

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Ting Li and Corliss Sio (supplied images)

Two early-career researchers from the Faculty of Arts & Science are recipients of the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty in Science Award of Excellence: Ting Li, an assistant professor in the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics; and Corliss Sio, an assistant professor in the department of Earth sciences.

The award was established in 2016 by University Professor Molly Shoichet to help early-career female researchers focus on their research.

Li’s research goal is to better understand the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy and galaxies in the nearby universe.

“I am profoundly honoured to have been selected as the recipient of the Dorothy Shoichet Award, and I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my department for nominating me,” says Li, “especially as I embark on establishing an optical instrumentation lab in my department and take on the role of chairing a large international collaboration.”

Sio’s research lies at the intersection of isotope geochemistry, experimental petrology and numerical modeling. She was instrumental in winning a major Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant for the GEMINAE lab (Geochemistry of Elements and Metal Isotopes in Nature and Experiments).

“I am incredibly honoured to receive this award and am grateful for Professor Shoichet’s generosity and my department’s support,” says Sio. “This award could not be better timed, coming while I am in the thick of building a laboratory that will be the first of its kind in Canada.”

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Six ��˾��ֱ�� faculty members named to Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

lanthierj — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 19:16:47 +0000

Six ��˾��ֱ�� faculty members named to Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

lanthierj Tue, 09/05/2023 - 15:16

Mississauga

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Department of Family and Community Medicine

Department of Physics

Department of Political Science

Department of Psychology

Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Royal Society of Canada

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Six faculty members at the University of Toronto – renowned for their pathbreaking leadership in a wide range of disciplines – have been appointed to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

“From scientific advances in astrophysics, atmospheric physics and social psychology to timely leadership in climate governance, computer security and privacy, and sexually transmitted infection prevention, these scholars and scientists are making an impact on issues that affect the lives of people across Canada and around the world,” says Leah Cowen, ��˾��ֱ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“The University of Toronto congratulates them on this significant recognition.”

The new college members are:

Jo Bovy of the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science
Ann Burchell of Unity Health and the department of family and community medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Jessica Green of the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science
Nicolas Papernot of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Nicholas Rule of the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science; vice-principal academic and dean, ��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga
Debra Wunch of the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science

Each faculty member receives a seven-year membership in the college, which recognizes and supports academic leadership and collaboration among those who have received their PhDs within the last 15 years.

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Four ��˾��ֱ�� researchers awarded Alfred P. Sloan Fellowships

lanthierj — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 18:15:25 +0000

Four ��˾��ֱ�� researchers awarded Alfred P. Sloan Fellowships

lanthierj Fri, 02/24/2023 - 13:15

Mississauga

Sloan Research Fellowships

Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences

��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga

Department of Computer Science

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

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(L-R) Duncan Dauvergne, Jimmy Ba, Sushant Sachdeva and Maria Drout (photos supplied)

Jimmy Ba, Duncan Dauvergne, Maria Drout and Sushant Sachdeva have been named 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows in recognition of their “creativity, innovation and research accomplishments” in the fields of computer science, mathematics and physics.

Ba is an assistant professor in the department of computer science in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science and a member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He addresses some of the biggest challenges in training deep neural networks and his “significant contributions have advanced our field by making deep learning more efficient and reliable,” says Professor Eyal de Lara, chair of the department.

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Joshua Speagle wins 2022 John Charles Polanyi Prize in physics

lanthierj — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 15:53:08 +0000

Joshua Speagle wins 2022 John Charles Polanyi Prize in physics

lanthierj Tue, 01/17/2023 - 10:53

John Charles Polanyi Prize

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Department of Statistics

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Joshua Speagle, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics and the department of statistical sciences, has been awarded the prestigious John Charles Polanyi Prize in physics for 2022.

“I'm honoured and humbled to receive the Polanyi Prize and hope to live up to the legacy of John Polanyi that it represents,” says Speagle. “This award highlights the incredibly exciting opportunities enabled by interdisciplinary research such as in astrostatistics and data science and reaffirms Ontario's commitment to supporting similar efforts by future young scientists.”

Speagle is developing new statistical techniques to create a high-resolution 3-D map of the Milky Way, as well as create new machine-learning methods that will help accelerate data processing. This map will be critical in helping scientists and astronomers better visualize the galaxy and understand its past, present and future.

The Polanyi Prize is awarded each year to as many as five researchers from an Ontario university in the early stages of their career. Given by the Ontario Council of Universities, it is named in honour of John Polanyi, a University Professor Emeritus in the department of chemistry and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize.

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Roberto Abraham awarded 2023 Jackson-Gwilt Medal

lanthierj — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 20:36:37 +0000

Roberto Abraham awarded 2023 Jackson-Gwilt Medal

lanthierj Fri, 01/13/2023 - 15:36

Royal Astronomical Society

Jackson-Gwilt Medal

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

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University of Toronto Astronomy Professor Roberto Abraham has been awarded the 2023 Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society, for his innovative work with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array.

Abraham is a professor and chair of the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, as well as an associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. He shares the award with Professor Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, his co-principal investigator.

The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is an innovative optical design that uses clusters of Canon lenses. The design and filters minimize stray light, which helps it to achieve an unpreceded sensitivity to low surface brightness features.

Abraham and van Dokkum, along with their research teams, began designing the telescope in 2013, starting with just three Canon lenses. Dragonfly now has 78 lenses and is expected to expand to 168 lenses within the next year. The professors’ work has contributed greatly to investigations of galaxy evolution, and shedding light on the nature of dark matter.

“It is a tremendous honour to receive this award,” says Abraham. “Previous honourees include some of my astronomical heroes, stretching back over a hundred years. It’s especially cool to be awarded the same medal that Clyde Tombaugh got for discovering Pluto – I don’t care what anybody says, that thing is still a planet in my book!”

CHIME radio telescope collaboration wins Brockhouse Canada Prize

lanthierj — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 17:03:43 +0000

CHIME radio telescope collaboration wins Brockhouse Canada Prize

lanthierj Tue, 10/25/2022 - 13:03

Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering

NSERC

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

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A cross-Canada collaboration including the University of Toronto has won the prestigious Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for its groundbreaking insight into astrophysical mysteries.

The award recognizes outstanding Canadian teams of researchers from different disciplines engaged in research that draws on their combined knowledge and skills – and has produced a record of excellent achievements in the natural sciences and engineering.

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a groundbreaking radio telescope – one of the most novel and extraordinarily powerful in the world – located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in B.C. It is described by NSERC as “one of the biggest success stories in Canadian astrophysics.”

“CHIME’s success arose from thinking outside the box and innovating without constraints of convention,” says Ue-Li Pen, a professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and a CHIME member. “The experiment leveraged leading Canadian expertise across the country to implement the novel cosmological intensity mapping concept pioneered in Toronto.”

“Building CHIME took a huge effort from the whole team, years of long nights for students, faculty and engineers across Canada,” says Keith Vanderlinde, a professor in the Faculty’s department of astronomy and astrophysics, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics and a CHIME member. “It’s been amazing to watch the telescope come to life and start pouring out science.”

With files from NSERC

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Yong-Baek Kim, Yanqin Wu and John Zilcosky named Guggenheim Fellows

lanthierj — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 19:59:51 +0000

Yong-Baek Kim, Yanqin Wu and John Zilcosky named Guggenheim Fellows

lanthierj Fri, 04/29/2022 - 15:59

Guggenheim Fellowships