Events

"Do Nearby Habitable-World Candidates Have an Atmosphere?"

Professor René Doyon’s research activities are focussed on the development of state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation for various ground- and space-based observatories. He is also actively involved in various observational programs for detecting and characterizing brown dwarfs, exoplanets and young low-mass stars. Professor Doyon is the Director of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets and the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic.

At Astronomy on Tap this month, WCA researchers Ana Ennis and Cam Morgan will speak about the most powerful telescopes from the past, present, and the future!

Jamie McCullough is a postdoctoral researcher in observational cosmology at Princeton University, using the measurements of galaxy shapes to trace the large-scale structure of the universe and the growth of that structure with cosmic time.

Dr Carlos Garcia Garcia is a cosmologist working at the interface of data and theory to understand the nature of dark energy. He received his PhD in 2020 from the University of Barcelona and has spent the past five years as a Beecroft Fellow at the University of Oxford. Carlos is active in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Dark Energy Science Collaboration, where he has held different leadership roles, most recently serving as co-convener of the Weak Lensing and Large-Scale Structure working group. He is also a member of Euclid.

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.