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Fall 2001
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Prof. John Landstreet and graduate student Margaret Campbell were quoted in the
TORONTO STAR article "Stargazers set for dazzling meteor shower".
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Summer 2001
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Dr. Kaczimierz Stepien, from the University of Warsaw in Poland is here for the summer to collaborate with Prof. John Landstreet.
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Spring 2001
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Dr. Thierry Lanz, presently with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is here for one week in June to collaborate with Prof. John Landstreet.
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Drs. David Gray, John Landstreet, Aaron Sigut, Charles Curry, Carol Jones, Romas Mitalas, and Amelia Wehlau, graduate students Heather Scott and Raphael Srawley, and third year undergraduate student Anudeep Kanwar of the Astronomy Group in the Department of Physics and Astronmy attended CASCA 2001, the ann al meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society.
The meeting was the largest gathering of Canadian professional astronomers up to this time with over 200 participants.
Papers presented included:
"Betelgeuse: Giant-Cell Convection?" by David F. Gray
"Constraints on Molecular Cloud Core Shapes from Observational Data" by Shantanu Basu, Carol Jones and John Dubinski (Toronto)
"Modeling Spectral Lines from Collapsing Molecular Cloud Cores" by Carol Jones, Shantanu Basu and Aaron Sigut
"Lyman-B ta Fluorescence of MgII in AGN Spectra" by Aaron Sigut
"Star Formation Thresholds and the Origins of Stellar Masses" by Ralph Pudritz (McMaster) and Shantanu Basu
"The Mass Function of Protostellar Clumps from Nonstationary Accretion" by Charles Curry and Michel Fich (Waterloo).
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Winner of the J.S. Plaskett Medal
The J. S. Plaskett Medal, given annually by CASCA, The Canadian Astronomical Society for an outstanding doctoral thesis
in astronomy or astrophysics by a Canadian student, was awarded to Dr. Peter Brown
of the Department of Physics and Astronomy for his thesis titled "Evolution of Two
Periodic Meteoroid Streams: the Perseids and Leonids".
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January/February 2001
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Drs. Shantanu Basu, Charles Curry, and Carol Jones of the Astronomy Group participated in the Star Formation/Interstellar Medium Jamboree hosted at the beginning of February by the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and the University of Toronto. Dr. Basu presented a talk entitled Molecular Cloud Energetics and Structure.
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Dr. Aaron Sigut recently returned from an observing run at the Pic du
Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees.
Dr. Sigut is a member of a
team of observers using the 2.2m Benard Lyot Telescope to map the
magnetic field geometries of solar-type and upper main sequence stars.
In order to reach the Observatory Dr. Sigut had to be airlifted in by helicopter.
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| Dr. Charles Curry spoke at the SF Jamboree in Jan 2001,
on "Toward a Less Solitary Theory of Molecular Cloud Cores."
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Prof. John Landstreet recently participated in a conference in Santiago, Chile, on "Magnetic fields across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram".
This meeting was attended by more than 100 astronomers and physicists from all over the world. Landstreet participated in the scientific organizing committee of the meeting, gave an invited review on "Recent Advances in Magnetic Field Diagnosis Techniques", and chaired an open discussion on evolutionary issues.
Dr. Gregg Wade, who received his PhD from Western in 1998, gave an invited talk on "Detection of Magnetic Fields in Hot Stars Using the Zeeman Effect".
Current UWO PhD student Steve Shorlin presented a paper entitled "Spectropolarimetric Measurements of Longitudinal Fields Using LSD" by SLS Shorlin, GA Wade (Montreal), JF Donati (Obs. de Midi-Pyrenees), JD Landstreet, P. Petit (Midi-Pyrenees) TAA Sigut, and S. Strasser.
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Dr. Carol Jones of the Astronomy Group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy attended the 197th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego and presented a paper entitled, "Triaxiality of Molecular Cloud Cores" by C. E. Jones, Shantanu Basu and John Dubinski (U of Toronto).
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Fall 2000
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Prof. Shantanu Basu gave an invited seminar to the Physics and Astronomy Department of Michigan State University entitled "Shells, Bubbles, Worms, and Chimneys: Highlights from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey".
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Dr. Gautier Mathys of the European Southern Observatory, based in Santiago, Chile spent 10 days at Western doing research on Stellar Magnetic Fields with Prof. John Landstreet.
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Summer 2000
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Prof. Shantanu Basu gave two invited talks at international conferences this summer. The first talk, entitled ``Core and Cluster Formation by Ambipolar Diffusion in Magnetic Interstellar Clouds'', was delivered at the meeting ``From Darkness to Light: Origin and Evolution of Young Stellar Clusters'', held at Cargese, Corsica, France. The second talk, entitled ``Magnetic Fields and the Structure of Prestellar Cores'', was delivered at the meeting ``Star Formation 2000: From Protostellar Cores to Planetary Systems'', held at Ringberg Castle, Tegernsee, Germany.
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A group of our faculty and graduate students attended, and gave papers at the annual Kingston Meeting for Theoretical Astrophysics which was held at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto this past August.
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