Cliff Burgess, Physics & Astronomy, has won third place in the 2016 Bulchalter Cosmology Prize competition. Burgess won the prize for his paper EFT Beyond the Horizon: Stochastic Inflation and How Primordial Quantum Fluctuations Go Classical. The Buchalter Cosmology Prize was created to encourage and recognize ideas in cosmology that have the potential to fundamentally advance our understanding of physics.

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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Alexander Bain, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology. A graduate of University of Toronto and UBC, he developed his career-long research interest in the theory of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy at the University of Cambridge, where completed his PhD. He was a respected colleague and supportive mentor to many aspiring students and junior faculty. He will be fondly remembered by his colleagues at the University and in the NMR community in Canada and beyond. An obituary and online book of condolence can be found here.

Congratulations to a group of McMaster Geography & Earth Sciences students who took five of nine top places in an international contest that tested competitors’ creative use of geographic information systems (GIS). Participants in the Esri Global Content Challenge had to take a list of authoritative data and, using their backgrounds and imaginations, develop compelling scientific stories using Esri’s Story Map Journal app. The competition drew more than 500 entries from nearly 60 countries in three categories: Land, Ocean and Population. Students in Patrick DeLuca’s course, Special Topics in GIS, took second and third place in Land, second and third in Ocean, and third in Population, dominating the competition, plus one honourable mention. A complete list of the McMaster winners and links to their project can be found here.

The Faculty welcomes Chelsea Sharon, Physics & Astronomy, as the inaugural William & Caroline Herschel Postdoctoral Fellow. She will spend the next two years here conducting research on galaxy evolution, looking back 10 billion years to learn more about why galaxies in the present day universe appear the way they do. Her research interests complement that of many researchers in the Department including Christine Wilson (CRC in Extragalactic Star Formation), Laura Parker, James Wadsley and Hugh Couchman. The Herschel fellowship was created through the William & Caroline Herschel Fund at McMaster, the result of a gift from Bill Harris, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics & Astronomy.

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