...where the Universe is our laboratory.
The Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics (WCA) looks to the cosmos to solve the greatest mysteries of the universe. Here, world-class researchers and students come together in an atmosphere of curiosity, creativity and collaboration; exploring our cosmic origin to truly understand the physical processes at work in the Universe. From black holes to cosmology, we aim to understand what lies beyond the Earth. The possibilities for new discovery are limitless.
News
New theory reshapes quantum view of Big Bang
WCA scientists have developed a new way to understand how the universe began, and it could change what we know about the Big Bang and the earliest moments of cosmic history. Their work suggests that the universe’s rapid early expansion could have arisen naturally from a deeper, more complete theory of quantum gravity.
Highest redshift jellyfish galaxy
WCA researchers Ian Roberts and Michael Balogh lead the team that have discovered the highest redshift jellyfish galaxy, named for the long, tentacle-like streams that trail behind them.
WCA Student Paper Prize 2025
Congratulations to graduate students Sofia Chiarenza and Cameron Morgan, who were awarded the 2025 WCA Student Paper prize. They were presented with their certificates by Dr Sara Seager, who sits on the WCA Governing Board.
The WCA student paper prize is awarded to the papers judged to be the best graduate student-led papers submitted in the past year (July 1 2024 - June 20 2025). They are evaluated on their importance to their field, originality of conception, difficulty of execution, clarity of the manuscript, and reproducibility.
Here, Cameron and Sofia describe their prize winning work.
Events
Astroseminar - Mayukh Bagchi and Felix Thiel
"Observing Black Holes from the Stratosphere"
Mayukh is currently a PhD candidate in Astronomy at Queen's University, Canada, working with Prof. Laura Fissel on the Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment (BVEX). His research focuses on developing balloon-borne radio telescopes for Very Long Baseline Interferometry.
Felix Thiel currently is a PhD student in the Department of Physics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario Canada and a member of the Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment (BVEX) collaboration under the supervision of Laura Fissel.
Astronomy on Tap - Everett Patterson and Kiana Salehi
At Astronomy on Tap this month, we'll be hearing all about the science of black holes from two experts studying these structures. Everett Patterson will tell us how astronomers and cosmologists reached our modern understanding of black holes from their theoretical origins, and Kiana Salehi, a member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, will discuss what we can learn about our Universe from photographing a black hole.