Dr. Spencer Pitcher's Cave Memorial Lecture on Wednesday provided an excellent overview of the exciting advances and research opportunities in fusion energy. Thanks to all who attended!
Thanks to everyone who came out to Astronomy on Tap last month! It was a blast, as always! Huge thanks to our delightful speakers, Jessie, Yilda, and Connor, and congrats to Jean-Marie on winning the science trivia! See you all again soon!
This Wednesday, March 4th, Learn about the latest advancements and opportunities in Fusion Energy at the 2026 Cave Memorial Lecture presented by Dr. Spencer Pitcher. Free for all ages, no registration required.
https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/events/cave-lecture-spencer-pitcher/
On Wednesday, March 4th, Dr. Spencer Pitcher will present the Cave Memorial Lecture on fusion energy, how it works, and the future of fusion energy in Canada. Register for free before this event sells out!
https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/events/cave-lecture-spencer-pitcher/
Prof. Geoffrey Hinton delivered a fantastic talk on the future of Artificial Intelligence at the 2026 Ewan Lecture last week. The recording is now live on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/M8RogoEDsQQ?si=TBfcHsDFIVtZxYov
Don't miss this month's Astronomy on Tap! Featuring physics researchers from Queen's University and University of Toronto! Join us next Tuesday at 6:30 PM at The Mansion, Kingston, for an evening of exciting physics talks and science trivia!
This Thursday's Ewan Lecture with Prof. Geoffrey Hinton is completely sold out!
Due to the overwhelming response to the event and several requests, we will be recording Dr. Hinton's talk and posting it to our YouTube channel after the event. Follow us for more upcoming events!
The deadline to apply for CAPSS 2026 has been extended to FEB 15th!
The Canadian Astroparticle Physics Summer School is an amazing opportunity for undergrads that covers current topics in astroparticle physics. Includes detector training at Queen's & SNOLAB!
https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/capss/
Person in a blue lab coat kneels beside an open electronics cabinet packed with multicolored wires, wearing clear safety glasses and an orange hard hat labeled “CHEYANNE,” holding a connector and looking at the camera.
Portrait of a person with short brown hair and a small nose ring, wearing a black pinstriped blazer over a burgundy top and a green pendant necklace, smiling slightly against a plain light-gray background.
Big congrats to our colleague Cheyanne Monk on the Undergraduate HQP Excellence Award granted through the McDonald Institute’s HQP Excellence Awards (HExA) program, recognizing her contributions in research (DEAP-3600), community building and science communication! 🎉
@mcdonaldinstitute.bsky.social
There's still space left for our CV and Cover letter writing workshop this week with Profs Stephen Sekula (@snolabscience.bsky.social) and Miriam Diamond (@utoronto.ca). Join us in person at Queen’s or virtually on Zoom.
Know someone who might enjoy working with astroparticle physicists?
The McDonald Institute Cross-Disciplinary Internship is open to non-physics students in any Canadian Post-Secondary program and includes a $12,000 salary reimbursement. Apply now for the Summer 2026 term!
Prof. Geoffrey Hinton is coming to Kingston! Join us on Thursday, Jan 29th, for the 2026 Ewan Lecture at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets are free, but are limited! Register now!
https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/events/hinton/
Applications are now open for CAPSS 2026! The Canadian Astroparticle Physics Summer School is a unique opportunity for undergraduate physics students to visit SNOLAB and learn from researchers at Queen's University.
Visit https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/capss/ for more information.
Curious about the demographics of physicists in Canada? Us too! Read our newest publication in @cdnsciencepub.com @facetsjournal.bsky.social 📏⚛️🌈How is your organization supporting the increasingly diverse group of future physicists? #equityinphysics #womeninstem 👇
Thanks to everyone who came out to Astronomy on Tap Kingston on Tuesday! Nic, Nick, and Nik enjoyed talking about their scientific and engineering endeavours.
See you all at the next one in February!
Tomorrow, Nov 25 at 6:30 PM at The Mansion, Astronomy on Tap Kingston edition featuring Nik Arora to talk to you about WHY WE EXIST AT ALL!? Along with Nick Swidinsky and Nic Moss of Queen's University for this fun-filled evening of physics, engineering and science trivia!!
Upgrade Update #4
Last week, IceCubers moved the drill tower and operations structures into place! The location is over hole 87, which will be the first Upgrade hole.
Read more➡️https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/icecube-gen2/2025/11/upgrade-update-4/
📸: Delia Tosi, IceCube/NSF
Next Tuesday, Nov 25, It's NICKVEMBER with Nik Arora, Nick Swidinsky, and Nic Moss as your speakers for Astronomy on Tap. Three different perspectives on the science and engineering around the theoretical phenomenon of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay and the SNO+ experiment!
Next Thursday, Nov 20, at 1:30 PM ET, Zachary Picker (Queen's) will give a McDonald Institute Seminar on a theory of dark matter as large objects like quark nuggets, Fermi balls, or primordial black holes, how they could be formed, and how we might go about detecting them.
📍Five planes arrived at the South Pole Station—many of the new arrivals were IceCubers! Our two new winterovers, Camille and Alicia, were welcomed out on the ice by outgoing winterovers, Joe and Ilya.
Read more about week 44
➡️ tinyurl.com/IceCubeWeek44
📸: Jennifer Wang, IceCube/NSF
Four members of the DEAP-3600 Queen’s group stand smiling behind a table at the McDonald Institute. The table displays electronic equipment used for demonstrations. Next to them is a DEAP-3600 poster, and two members are holding 3D-printed models of the detector used to explain dark matter research.
🛡️⚔️ Four knights of #darkmatter from Queen’s team joined McDonald Institute for #DarkMatterDay on the 8 Nov, hosting a booth on #DEAP3600 & future liquid argon detectors 🔦✨ Our contribution to a global outreach initiative.
@mcdonaldinstitute.bsky.social @queensuresearch.bsky.social
The Deadline for the HQP Excellence Awards is Nov 15th! Check out the award categories and apply now to be considered! Full details at McDonaldInstitute.ca/news/hexawards
In this episode of the #EDIICatalyst, Dr. Alexandra Pedersen (@mcdonaldinstitute.bsky.social) and Heidi Penning join us to discuss the creation of inclusive and accessible research environments.
➡️ Listen now: bit.ly/47N5BSd
#ChemSky
This Saturday, dark matter theorist Joe Bramante gives you the #DarkMatterDay you've been searching for! Discover how the very early universe could have created gigantic dark matter detectors! Followed by a dark matter science fair and tour of the Queen's Observatory!
Info at McDonaldinstitute.ca
Next Saturday, Nov 8th, Join Dr. Joe Bramante for Dark Matter Day! Learn about how supernovae can be used to detect dark matter! A science fair will be set up in Stirling Hall, and a tour of the Queen's Observatory! Free for all ages. More info at mcdonaldinstitute.ca
Adriana Bariego, a new member of the Queen's University Astroparticle Physics Theory group, is giving the McDonald Institute HQP Seminar tomorrow, Wednesday, 29th at 3:00 PM ET. Watch live on our YouTube, or visit our webpage for a link to join the Zoom.
This Wednesday afternoon, Oct 29th at 3:00 PM ET. Adriana Bariego will give the monthly McDonald Institute HQP Seminar, live on YouTube and Zoom. Check mcdonaldinstitute.ca for details.
Last week @queensuresearch.bsky.social celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Dr. Arthur B. McDonald's Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. This event also marked a funding announcement for the @mcdonaldinstitute.bsky.social.
www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...
Page of Belliner magazine featuring the article “Andare sottoterra per studiare il cielo” (“Going underground to study the sky”). The main image shows the spherical DEAP-3600 dark matter detector with multiple round photodetectors arranged in a geometric pattern.
Proud to share that a story on #darkmatter and the DEAP-3600 experiment has just been published in Belliner magazine 📰✨ A great opportunity to bring cutting-edge astrophysics closer to the public!
Practise your Italian😉👉 shorturl.at/mGcDh
#outreach
On stage from left to right: Nancy Ross, Alejandro Adem, Patrick Deane, Art McDonald, Tony Noble, Julia Brachman, Zoe Brisson-Tsavoussis, Kate Wilson, John Burge, Michael Fraser
Today, Dr. Art McDonald joined students and leaders from Queen's University and NSERC to reflect on the legacy of the SNO experiment on the 10th anniversary of receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics with Dr. Takaaki Kajita for the discovery of neutrino oscillation. Read more at bit.ly/3W8GHHt
