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.