Category Archives: CASCA in the News

CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Kristine Spekkens as the winner of the 2024 CASCA Executive award, recognizing her sustained contributions in service that have strengthened the Canadian astronomical community and enhanced its impact nationally and internationally, in particular through the key role she has played in enabling Canada’s joining the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO) as a full member in 2023.

Prof. Spekkens began her faculty career in Canada in 2008 after receiving her PhD in 2005 from Cornell University. In the last 15 years, Prof. Spekkens has served on four CASCA committees: Nominating (2022 – present), Equity and Inclusivity 2016-2022 (chair, 2020-2022), Awards 2013-2016 (chair 2014-2016), Ground-Based Astronomy (2011-2013) and on the CASCA Board (2016-2019). She also served on the ACURA TMT advisory council (2017-22), and was vice chair of the 2015 Long Range Plan mid-term review.

Dr. Spekkans also served as a Canadian representative on many international committees including the Visiting Review Committee for the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (Australia, 2023), the External Proposal Review Committee for FAST (China, 2023), the NRAO TAC (US, Chair, 2018-19), and NRAO Extragalactic Science Review Panel (2017-19). These many roles testify to the esteem in which the community and external agencies hold Prof. Spekkens’ judgment.

It is in service related to the SKA Observatory that Prof. Spekkens has played her most critical roles. She
currently serves on the ACURA Advisory Council on the SKA (2017-present), as the Canadian SKA Science Director (2019-present) and as vice-chair of the SKA’s Science and Engineering Advisory Committee (SEAC; 2023-present, committee member since 2021 and previously 2017-19). These roles along with her tireless efforts to advocate on behalf of the Canadian astronomy community were integral to Canada becoming a treaty member of this historic observatory.

Overall, Prof. Spekkens’ service to the Canadian community has been myriad and of the highest quality. She has had a significant impact in enhancing research done by all Canadian astronomers. Her commitment to our community makes her extremely deserving of the CASCA Executive award for 2024.

CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton as the winner of the 2024 Qilak award, recognizing recent and impactful outreach activities.

Dr. Rousseau-Nepton received her PhD from Université Laval, and following a Resident Astronomer position at the Canada France Hawai’i Telescope, joined the faculty of the University of Toronto. Dr. Rousseau-Nepton receives this recognition for her leadership in and involvement with the award-winning and ground-breaking National Film Board of Canada documentary North Star/Étoile du Nord, which she co-directed, co-wrote and starred in, as well as for her associated outreach activities. This film and outreach activities have had, and will continue to have, important and broad impacts on public understanding and appreciation of the science of astronomy. In sharing her journey with young people, the film promotes the participation in astronomy of under-represented groups, in particular women and Indigenous people. In parallel to North Star, Dr. Rousseau-Nepton did weekly presentations to schoolchildren in Hawai’i and also did about 60 presentations to school classes in Canada through Connected North, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring educational resources to remote Indigenous communities.

CASCA is delighted to recognize Dr. Rousseau-Nepton for these outstanding outreach contributions.

CASCA is pleased to announce that Dr. Roberto Abraham and the Dragonfly team are the winners of the 2024 Dunlap Award.

This award recognizes a decade of innovation and effort on the part of Dr. Abraham and the Dragonfly team, who have designed, constructed, and operated the Dragonfly Telephoto Array in New Mexico. The Dragonfly team has used this facility to produce ground-breaking science results in the low surface brightness universe, including the discovery of ultra-diffuse galaxies and galaxies displaying exceptionally low amounts of dark matter. The Dragonfly team is relatively small compared to other high impact astronomical projects and the close-knit, hands-on environment fostered within the team has propelled many exceptional young scientists into high-profile, international careers. Dr. Abraham received his PhD from Oxford University and, following postdoctoral research at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge University, and the Royal Greenwich Observatory, joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 2000.

CASCA is exceptionally pleased to recognize the efforts of Dr. Abraham and the entire Dragonfly team with this award.

CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Antoine Bédard as the recipient of the 2024 J.S. Plaskett Medal for the most outstanding doctoral thesis in astronomy or astrophysics.

Dr. Bédard received his PhD from Université de Montréal, under the supervision of Drs. Pierre Bergeron and Pierre Brassard, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Warwick (UK). His thesis, titled ‘Characterization and modeling of the spectral evolution of hot white dwarf stars’, combines observations, model atmosphere and stellar evolution calculations, data analyses, and interpretations. Dr. Bédard’s thesis begins with spectroscopic analysis of 2000 hot white dwarfs, providing our best picture of white dwarf spectral evolution. He then substantially reworked the STELUM stellar evolutionary code and used this to simulate white dwarf spectral evolution. Finally, he applied his numerical simulations to self-consistently explain the physics behind the spectral evolution of white dwarfs as they cool, solving several well-known longstanding problems in the study of white dwarfs. Dr. Bédard’s thesis introduction provides a thorough overview of the study of white dwarfs for graduate students and other researchers working on this topic, and his papers have already had a wide impact in the field.

ASCA is delighted to recognize Dr. Bédard’s achievements with this award.

CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Julio F. Navarro as the recipient of the 2024 Carlyle S. Beals Award in recognition of outstanding achievement in research.

Dr. Navarro obtained his PhD from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, in Argentina, and is currently a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Victoria. As one of the leading cosmologists in Canada and the world, he has made many lasting impactful contributions to the field of computational cosmology, including landmark work on the intrinsic structure of dark matter halos. His work has proved essential to our understanding of the role of dark matter in the large-scale structure of the universe and in galaxy formation and evolution. Dr. Navarro’s contributions also include studies of dissipative effects on satellite galaxies, the collapse and shock-heating of non-radiative gas during the formation of galaxy clusters, and the formation and evolution of galactic disks. He was a pioneer of the “smoothed-particle hydrodynamics” (SPH) simulation technique, which remains the dominant tool allowing scientists to understand galaxy formation and evolution. Dr. Navarro has mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to highly successful scientific careers.

CASCA is delighted to recognize Dr. Navarro’s efforts with this award.