Events

Charles-Édouard Boukaré’s research focuses on understanding the deep interior structure and evolution of rocky planets. His work lies at the intersection of earth and planetary sciences, computational fluid mechanics, mineral physics, and high-pressure chemistry.

At Astronomy on Tap this month, WCA researchers Liza Sazonova and Lammim Ahad will speak about the largest, strangest galaxies in the Universe!

"The role of turbulence in galaxy clusters: A XRISM perspective"

Dr Anwesh Majumder was awarded his Bachelors (2014-2017) and Masters in Physics (2017-2019) with astro specialisation from Presidency University, Kolkata, India. After that, he moved to University of Amsterdam for his PhD (2019-2025). Anwesh followed that up with a short Scientist C position at Space Research Organisation Netherlands (March 2025-May 2025) before moving to Waterloo to take up a joint position with the WCA and Brian McNamara. Anwesh uses the XRISM X-ray telescope to understand how supermassive black holes affect the environment of galaxy clusters.

Most of us are taught that the universe began with a giant explosion called the Big Bang. But what if that picture is incomplete—or even wrong? In this month's KPL astronomy talk, Niayesh Afshordi will explore the growing cracks in our standard cosmic origin story and introduce rival ideas that challenge the very notion of a beginning of time.

"Cluster Lensing in the Stage-IV Era"

Charlie Mpetha did his undergraduate at Lancaster University, then moved to a PhD in gravitational wave cosmology at the University of Edinburgh. Mid-way through his PhD, in 2023, he won a Leverhulme Study-Abroad scholarship to work at the WCA for a year with James Taylor on topics in cluster cosmology. Now, Charlie is in his first year as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Goddard, working on cluster science for the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope.

"The Mystery of Martian Methane and A Potential Solution"

Elisa Dong is a final year PhD candidate at York University researching planetary atmospheres trying to understand how and why things move from point A to point B, or don’t. Her favourite research question is, "what if?". She completed her BSc in Geophysics at the University of Waterloo, and an MSc at Western University. 

"Atmospheric compositions of hot Jupiters as tracers of planet formation history"

Dr. Margaret Buhariwalla (She/They) recently graduated with their PhD from St. Mary's University in 2025. Her research focuses on hot plasmas associated with actively accreting supermassive black holes. Margaret has a passion for (and several years of experience in) science communication and is particularly interested in sharing the human perspective on space science.

Among the diversity of exoplanets discovered in the last few decades are a particularly intriguing type called lava worlds. In this month's KPL astronomy talk, Dr. Lisa Dang will share how we find these scorching hot rocky planets, and discuss how we can study them and what you could experience if you were to visit a lava world.

Emily Deibert is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo, where her research focuses on characterizing the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters and other exoplanets. Prior to starting at Waterloo, Emily was a Gemini Science Fellow and NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gemini South Observatory in La Serena, Chile, where she worked as a member of the instrument science team for the observatory's new high-resolution optical spectrograph, GHOST. Emily completed a PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics, and an undergraduate degree in Astronomy, English, and Mathematics, from the University of Toronto's St George campus.