News archive - 2019

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Donna Strickland appointed to the Order of Canada

On December 28, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada announced 120 new appointments to the Order of Canada. The new member list included Donna Strickland, appointed for outstanding contributions in their field and for enriching the lives of others.

Companion of the Order of Canada

Donna Strickland

Thursday, October 31, 2019

DESI opens its 5,000 eyes to capture the colours of the cosmos

by Mike Brown on October 28, 2019
taken from Inside the Perimeter

A new instrument mounted atop a telescope in Arizona has aimed its robotic array of 5,000 fibre-optic “eyes” at the night sky to capture the first images showing its unique view of galactic light.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Event Horizon Telescope team awarded 2020 Breakthrough Prize

Breakthrough Prize trophy; breakthroughprize.org

The 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team, of which Dr. Avery Broderick is a member. The citiation reads "For the first image of a supermassive black hole, taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes."

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

A first look at laser-cooled ions

Eight individual ions levitating in a near-perfect vacuum

The atomic ions here are laser-cooled close to the absolute zero temperature (at a few milliKelvin above the absolute zero temperature of -273.15 deg C or 0 Kelvin).

Pictured left: eight individual Ytterbium ions levitating less than 10 microns apart from each other in a nearly perfect vacuum

Wednesday, August 21, 2019