Professor Emeritus Allan Carswell (Physics & Astronomy) and the Carswell Family Foundation made a $1M gift to the Faculty of Science and Lassonde School of Engineering to support graduate student scholarships.

Congratulations to:

• Nantel Bergeron (Mathematics & Statistics), Chun Peng (Biology) and Amro Zayed (Biology) on their new appointments as York Research Chairs. With five Chairs altogether, Science is now the Faculty with the most YRCs.
• Tom Salisbury (Mathematics & Statistics), who was appointed as the new Associate Director of Industry Liaison at the Fields Institute. Tom succeeds Huaxiong Huang (Mathematics & Statistics), who will be the next Deputy Director of the Fields Institute.
• Maryam Hariri (supervisor: Sylvie Morin; Chemistry) on being awarded one of three York Postdoctoral Fellowships by the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
• Seyed Moghadas (Mathematics & Statistics), who received a CIHR Knowledge Dissemination Grant to support a workshop to be held in the fall.
• Logan Donaldson (Biology), who received a research and travel grant from the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund to collaborate with colleagues in Poland on E. Coli research.

The Faculty of Science Strategic Plan is now posted on our website.

The York Observatory team and the Astronomy Club hosted a successful public viewing event for Mercury in transit. The event was covered by CBC News, CTV News broadcasts across the country, as well as by CP24.

The Faculty of Science hosted Science Rendezvous at Main Street Markham. Congratulations and thanks to all of the event organizers and volunteers who made it a terrific success.

Jianhong Wu (Mathematics & Statistics) and his postdoc Yawen Xu participated in the Research Matters Parliament Hill Pop-Up Research Park.

A number of Science faculty members, students and staff presented at the Teaching In Focus conference at York University.

The City of Toronto has published a booklet on “Bees of Toronto” as part of their Biodiversity series. Much of the content and images in the book were produced by Laurence Packer’s and Amro Zayed’s labs (Biology). The book can be picked up in Toronto Public Library branches.

Laurence Packer (Biology) spoke at the “Let it Bee” campaign launch by Friends of the Earth and Ontario Power Generation.

Several Science faculty members are featured in the latest York University Magazine, including Chris Bergevin, Randy Lewis and Paul Delaney (Physics & Astronomy); Dawn Bazely (Biology); and Mark Vicari (NATS).

Paul Delaney (Physics & Astronomy) presented “Space and Technology Exploration” at Ernest Cumberland Elementary School. In addition, Paul, student Jen Zomederis, and York alumna Julie Tome presented “What’s Up in Space” to an audience of 300 at the AstroNuts Kids’s Space Club.

The Association of Graduate Students in the Biological Sciences hosted the “Science in Society” symposium, which featured student poster presentations and talks by external experts.

PhD student Brock Harpur (Biology) and Sheila Colla (Faculty of Environmental Studies) organized the the fifth Southern Ontario Bee Researchers Symposium at York.

Graduate Students Drew Belsky and Peggy Chiapetta (Science & Technology Studies) received three-year Canadian Graduate Scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Graduate students Drew Belsky and Lina Pinto-Garcia (Science & Technology Studies) ran a two-day workshop on “Exploring Ethnography,” which featured Hélène Mialet.

Graduate Students in the Department of Science & Technology Studies and their counterparts at the University of Toronto held the second annual “Binocular Conference”. The three-day event, which was held at York and the University of Toronto on alternate days, featured numerous research papers by STS grad students.

PhD student Cameron Murray (Science & Technology Studies) launched a new video titled “What is an algorithm?” as part of his “Art of the Problem” YouTube series.

IN THE MEDIA

Paul Delaney spoke about the Mercury transit with the Ottawa Citizen, CBC News, and CTV News (Canada AM); about Mars making its closest point to Earth in 11 years with CTV News; and about the next Canadian astronaut to ISS with Global TV, Sirius XM, and CHML 900AM. Paul also commented on cyber attacks at the National Research Council of Canada in the Ottawa Citizen.

Laurence Packer (Biology) commented about bees and how to protect them in The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, and The Hamilton Spectator.

Sapna Sharma’s (Biology) study on ice cover and climate change received continued coverage in Mental Floss.

Dean Ray Jayawardhana discussed the Mercury transit with Matt Galloway on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.

Recent PhD graduate Jesse Rogerson (Physics & Astronomy) spoke to CTV News about NASA’s discovery of more than 1,200 planets.

UPCOMING EVENTS

June 23: Science & Engineering Convocation, 10:30 am, Aviva Centre

June 23: Science Unplugged + Celebration, 3:30-5:00 pm, Life Sciences Building Rm. 103 and lobby

July-August: Science Explorations Summer Camps and Helix Summer Science Institute