The Entangler | Fall 2018

Out of the about 160 scholarships awarded each year nationwide over all fields, five of our students have been awarded in this funding round. 

One of the most satisfying rewards for serving as department chair has been the opportunity to meet many of you and to hear what you are up to. Whether its research on string theory, market research, banking, teaching, or founding a startup, I’m amazed at the breadth of accomplishment our graduates have enjoyed.

University of Waterloo alumnus Kate A. Ross receives the prestigious George E. Valley Jr. Prize, awarded in 2016 by the American Physical Society, for her groundbreaking work on "The elucidation of quantum frustrated magnetism and its expression in the ground state selection of pyrochlore magnets."

Zahra Fakhraai is the recipient of 2015 Sloan fellowship in Chemistry, 2017 Journal of Physical Chemistry B Lectureship Award, and 2017 University of Waterloo Young Alumni award. Zahra identifies as a material scientist interested in materials properties in small length scales and extremely slow dynamics.

Christine Muschik joins the University of Waterloo as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and as a faculty member in the Institute for Quantum Computing.

Dmitry Pushin's work has been recognized by the American Physical Society as a “Top Ten Physics Newsmakers of 2016”, and 2018 Science Prize of the Neutron Scattering Society of America.

In a recent Nature Communications paper, Gingras and collaborators exposed in a spin ice material — a system in which the microscopic atomic magnetic moments experience frustrated interactions, and closely mimic the behaviour of the protons in common water ice — an heretofore unnoticed analogy with classical gases.

Emily Pass, now a fourth-year undergraduate co-op student in the department of Physics and Astronomy won faculty, provincial and national Co-op Student of the Year Awards in March 2018. This co-op triple crown award was given for the work Emily did developing a data analysis program that rapidly detects objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of space beyond Neptune. Emily acknowledges her long term passion in Astronomy combined with Physics education she obtained at Waterloo for her success leading to “wonderful opportunities and possibilities” for the future career growth.

Rob Myers graduated in Physics at Waterloo in 1982. Unknown to him at the time was the journey that would bring him touring the best academic institutions around the world and that he would be brought back to Waterloo in 2001 as founding member of the Perimeter Institute.

Dr. Zoya Leonenko and her research group are using atomic force microscopy to study neuronal membranes, producing results that suggest the mechanisms that trigger Alzheimer's Disease.

The University of Waterloo's newly created Distinguished Chair in Astrophysics, Prof. Will Percival, coming from the Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, is leading an effort to understand why the Universal expansion is accelerating.

When asked what he would miss most about the department, Rohan replied that the support he received from all levels including the department chairs, and the administrative staff, but most of all, the students. Rohan is a special educator who has touched the lives of thousands of students and has left them with a positive memory of their time at the University of Waterloo.

Can you solve it? The Sir Isaac Newton Exam, as we all know and love it, continues to offer challenging problems to high school students around the world. Flex your Physics brains with this problem from the 2013 Sir Isaac Newton Exam!