Thirty Faculty of Science researchers received Discovery Grants totalling more than $6.0 million, with 10 of these faculty members also receiving Discovery Launch Supplements (valued at $12,500 each). Additionally, four Science researchers received a total of more than $2.1 million in Sub-atomic Physics Discovery Grants. For a complete list of recipients, see below.

Discovery Grant (including Discovery Launch Supplements) recipients:

Andrew Donini, Department of Biology
Salt and water balance in aquatic insects
$47,000 per year for a five-year term

Gordon Fitch, Department of Biology
Tritrophic interactions in a changing world: understanding how urbanization shapes plant-pollinator-parasite interactions to influence pollinator health and pollination services
$38,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Katalin Hudak, Department of Biology
Regulation and activity of plant ribosome inactivating protein
$48,000 per year for a five-year term

Kohitij Kar, Department of Biology
Probing the mechanisms of primate visual intelligence
$38,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Terrance Kubiseski, Department of Biology
Regulation of Caenorhabditis elegans Stress Response
$40,000 per year for a five-year term

Raymond Kwong, Department of Biology
Understanding the homeostatic regulation and neurophysiology of essential trace metals in zebrafish
$39,000 per year for a five-year term

John McDermott, Department of Biology
Nucleolar Regulation and Function in Myogenic Cells
$48,000 per year for a five-year term

Eryn McFarlane, Department of Biology
The interplay between genetics and the environment on hybrid fitness
$29,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Sandra Rehan, Department of Biology
Integrative genomics for pollinator health and social evolution
$65,000 per year for a five-year term

Gary Sweeney, Department of Biology
Examining cellular consequences of excess iron on skeletal muscle
$33,000 per year for a five-year term

Yongjoo Kim, Department of Chemistry
Methods to Create Mutations in Cells to Understand and Improve Protein Function
$37,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Arturo Orellana, Department of Chemistry
Modern Approaches to Electrocyclization of Heptatrienyl Anions
$36,000 per year for a five-year term

Derek Wilson, Department of Chemistry
Advancing Hydrogen Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry to Explore the Dynamic Origins of Protein (mis)Function
$36,000 per year for a five-year term

Cora Young, Department of Chemistry
Characterizing the abundance, sources, and fate of fluorinated gases in the atmosphere
$62,000 per year for a five-year term

Tao Zeng, Department of Chemistry
Theoretical studies of vibronic and spin-vibronic couplings: methodological development and applications in materials science
$36,000 per year for a five-year term

Nantel Bergeron, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Quasisymmetric varieties, Schubert polynomials and other algebraic combinatorial systems
$27,000 per year for a five-year term

Miles Couchman, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Turbulent mixing in stratified flows
$26,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Ilijas Farah, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
K-theory reversing automorphisms of the Calkin algebra. Disintegration of von Neumann algebras
$48,000 per year for a five-year term

Xin Gao, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Statistical learning methods for multi-task and network data
$27,000 per year for a five-year term

Jane Heffernan, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Towards an immuno-epidemiological framework: Tradeoffs between biological detail and mathematical complexity
$31,000 per year for a five-year term

Paul Skoufranis, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Linearization in Bi-Free Probability
$24,000 per year for a five-year term

Jianhong Wu, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Delay Differential Equations: Theory of Global Dynamics with Applications to Public Health of Zoonotic Diseases
$60,000 per year for a five-year term

Kaiqiong Zhao, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Novel statistical methods for complex data-enabled learning and causal discovery
$23,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Scott Beattie, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Optical Frequency Combs and Atomic Clocks for Frequency and Time Metrology
$19,900 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Charles-Eduoard Boukar茅, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Solidification Dynamics of Rocky Planets Interiors
$28,500 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Eric Hessels, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Tests of Fundamental Physics Using Atoms and Molecules
$61,000 per year for a five-year term

Matthew Johnson, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Fundamental Physics from Microwave Background Secondary Anisotropies and Quantum Simulation of Vacuum Decay
$75,000 per year for a five-year term

Rahul Kannan, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Modelling high redshift structure formation and reionization
$39,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Adam Muzzin, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Resolving Galaxy Growth with Canadian-Built Astronomical Instrumentation
$50,000 per year for a five-year term

Paul Scholz, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Revealing the nature of Fast Radio Bursts and unlocking their potential as probes of the Universe
$33,000 per year for a five-year term
*Discovery Launch Supplement ($12,500)

Sub-atomic Physics Discovery Grant recipients:

Nikita Blinov, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Three Directions Toward the Discovery of Dark Matter
$55,000 per year for a five-year term

Deborah Harris, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Paving the way for Neutrino Oscillation Measurements at DUNE
$300,000 per year for a three-year term

Eric Hessels, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Probing PeV-scale physics: Measuring the electron electric dipole moment using barium monofluoride embedded in an argon solid
$165,000 per year for a three-year term

Randy Lewis, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Lattice gauge theory on classical and quantum computers
$90,000 per year for a five-year term

Read the about all of the 91亚色 recipients.

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Media Release from June 11, 2024

Work by 91亚色 astronomer and research colleagues in U.S. may provide clues into development of surrounding galaxies

Clouds of gas in a distant galaxy are being pushed faster and faster out among neighbouring stars by blasts of radiation from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy鈥檚 centre, a discovery that helps illuminate the way active black holes can continuously shape their galaxies by spurring on or snuffing out the development of new stars.

A team of researchers, including 91亚色 Faculty of Science Professor and Physics and Astronomy Chair , revealed the accelerating gas through years of observations of a quasar 鈥� a black hole surrounded by a hot and bright disk of matter 鈥� some 30 billion light years away in the constellation Bo枚tes.

Hall says that while this quasar acceleration has been seen before, including by researchers involved in this study, the level of detail here is unprecedented.

鈥淲e were able to make 130 observations over the course of eight years, so our confidence in this acceleration is quite high,鈥� says Hall. 鈥淭he difference in information could be compared to looking at two photographs at different points in time versus a movie.鈥�

Black holes are believed to be situated at the centre of most galaxies. Quasars are supermassive black holes surrounded by disks of matter being pulled in by the black hole鈥檚 enormous gravitational power.

The research was led by University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison astronomy professor Catherine Grier and recent graduate Robert Wheatley, and also included researchers from Pennsylvania State University, the University of Arizona, and others. and the findings are also being presented today at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

鈥淭he material in that disk is always falling into the black hole, and the friction it feels heats up the disk and makes it very, very hot and very, very bright,鈥� says Grier. 鈥淭hese quasars are really luminous and 鈥� because there鈥檚 a large range of temperatures from the interior to the far parts of the disk 鈥� their emission covers almost all of the electromagnetic spectrum.鈥�

The bright light makes visible quasars nearly as old as the universe (and as many as 13 billion light years away when their light was emitted), and the broad range of their radiation makes them particularly useful for astronomers to probe the early universe.

Researchers used more than eight years of observations of a quasar called SBS 1408+544, collected by a quasar monitoring program carried out by the now known as the Black Hole Mapper Reverberation Mapping Project. They tracked winds composed of gaseous carbon by spotting light from the quasar that was missing 鈥� light that was being absorbed by the gas. But instead of being absorbed at exactly the right spot in the spectrum that would indicate carbon, the shadow shifted farther from home with every new look.

鈥淭hat shift tells us the gas is moving fast, and faster all the time,鈥� says Wheatley. 鈥淲e think the wind is accelerating because it鈥檚 being pushed by radiation that is blasted off of the accretion disk.鈥�

The winds pushing gas out from the quasar are of interest to astronomers because they are a way in which the supermassive black holes might influence the evolution of the galaxies that surround them.

Depending on the circumstances, a quasar鈥檚 winds could supply pressure that squeezes gas together and speeds the birth of stars in its host galaxy. Or it could scour away that fuel and keep potential stars from forming.

To study quasars, astronomers look at their spectra, which is a measure of how much light the quasar gives off at each wavelength 鈥� from ultraviolet through the full visible spectrum from blue to red, and into infrared. A spectrum can reveal far more about a quasar than a simple telescope image 鈥� so by repeatedly measuring spectra over many years, astronomers can watch quasar light fluctuations and learn about the motion of the gas in the accretion disk, which can be used to determine the mass.

鈥淟ight has a force, so if you shine enough light on an object it can move,鈥� says Hall. 鈥淲e think that may be what's going on here, but it's not clear because I don't think we see enough of an increase in light to explain the acceleration we see. It's possible that wavelengths of ultraviolet light that we can鈥檛 observe directly are responsible, but right now it鈥檚 not clear. I look forward to seeing what this quasar does in the future.鈥�

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Congratulations to Professors Eric Hessels and Wendy Taylor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, for being named Fellows of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP). Launched in 2022, the CAP Fellowship Program recognizes its members who have made significant contributions in physics research, in physics teaching, in the advancement of technology, or in service to the CAP.

In the , the new Fellows were highlighted for their contributions:

Eric Hessels

鈥淚n recognition of their advancements in the state of the art for high precision atomic physics measurements and establishment of tests of fundamental physics; and for an outstanding record of mentorship and training.鈥�

Wendy Taylor

鈥淚n recognition of her outstanding contributions to particle physics including leading collider searches for magnetic monopoles, B-meson oscillations, and CP violation; and for notable service to the physics community, engaging in physics outreach, and tirelessly promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in physics.鈥�

The post Two faculty members receive 2024 Canadian Association of Physicists Fellowships appeared first on Faculty of Science.

It might be April Fool鈥檚 Day, but the sun鈥檚 brightness is no joke, insists Elaina Hyde, an assistant professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science and director of 91亚色鈥檚 Allan I. Carswell Observatory. Looking directly at the sun is never safe, she says, but that is especially true during a solar eclipse, like the one expected in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico on April 8.

A total solar eclipse is a rare celestial event that occurs as the moon aligns perfectly between Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun鈥檚 face and casting its shadow onto Earth, resulting in brief moments of temporary darkness. In Ontario, the eclipse鈥檚 path of totality 鈥� the locations where the moon鈥檚 shadow covers the sun in its entirety 鈥� includes Niagara Falls, Hamilton and St. Catharines.

Although Toronto will only experience a partial eclipse, with the moon covering 99.6 per cent of the sun, the sun鈥檚 brightness will still be strong enough to cause eye damage 鈥� and potential blindness 鈥� to anyone who looks directly at it. This can occur even if direct exposure only lasts a few seconds.

鈥淧eople, especially young children, may be tempted to look up during the eclipse, but it鈥檚 not safe to do so without proper protection,鈥� says Hyde. 鈥淪unglasses are definitely not protective and shouldn鈥檛 be used when viewing the eclipse, but there are safe ways to do it.鈥�

Those safe ways of viewing the eclipse 鈥� either total or partial 鈥� include using 鈥媠olar viewing glasses that have been certified by the International Organization for Standardization (labelled 鈥嬧�婭SO 12312-2 certified), a pinhole camera (a type of projector), or solar filters specifically designed to be used with telescopes or binoculars. For more safety tips, see the Observatory鈥檚 Eclipse Safety flyer.

In the days leading up to the big event, 91亚色鈥檚 Observatory will be hosting a pre-eclipse solar viewing on the first clear day between April 2 and 6. Join 91亚色 astronomers as they take solar-appropriate telescopes outside to view the sun, demonstrate pinhole cameras and pass out free solar viewing glasses. Experts will answer frequently-asked questions about the eclipse and discuss how to enjoy the partial eclipse from Toronto. Good solar views require clear weather, which makes this event especially challenging to plan. Those interested in participating should check the Observatory鈥檚 Solar Eclipse 2024 web page daily at 10 a.m. between April 2 and 6 to find out if the event is on or off that day. For more information about the event, and to register for free tickets and daily updates, visit the .

On April 8, eclipse timing will vary depending on location. At 91亚色, the partial eclipse will begin at 2:04 p.m. and end at 4:31 p.m., reaching its maximum expression at 3:19 p.m., which will be the best time to view it. Wherever you are during those times, Hyde stresses the importance that you do not 鈥� under any circumstances 鈥� look directly at the sun without the proper eye protection listed above.

Since 91亚色鈥檚 campuses are not located on the path of totality, the University won鈥檛 be hosting any public viewing events that day; however, 91亚色 staff, faculty and students at the Keele Campus are invited to safely observe the partial eclipse atop the Arboretum Lane Parking Garage, near the Allan I. Carswell Observatory atrium.

Solar viewing glasses will be available, while supplies last, at multiple distribution sites on campus 鈥� during the , in the Department of Physics & Astronomy office on the first floor of the Petrie Science & Engineering Building; and on April 8, at the observing station on the fifth floor of the Arboretum Lane Parking Garage and at a smaller viewing area near 91亚色 Station in Harry W. Arthurs Common.

To learn more about the upcoming solar eclipse, visit the Allan I. Carswell Observatory鈥檚 Solar Eclipse 2024 web page for more information and resources, including blog updates from professors Robin Metcalfe and Bruce Waters, sharing their solar eclipse experiences.

The post Don鈥檛 look up: how to safely view upcoming solar eclipse appeared first on Faculty of Science.

Your mother probably told you to never look at the Sun or you would go blind, but that is particularly true when it comes to the upcoming solar eclipse, says Elaina Hyde, director of 91亚色鈥檚 Allan I. Carswell Observatory (AICO).

Hyde, an assistant professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science is available for media interviews in the lead up to the eclipse to talk about what an eclipse is and how to safely view it.

Although it will only be a partial eclipse in Toronto, 99.6 per cent, it is still strong enough to cause eye damage, even blindness, if anyone looks directly at it, adds Hyde, an assistant professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science.

For those wanting the full experience, the total eclipse will be viewable in other areas of Ontario 鈥� Niagara Falls, Hamilton and St. Catharines. In Toronto (timing varies depending on location), the partial solar eclipse will at 2:04 p.m. and end at 4:31 p.m. on April 8 with the maximum at 3:19 p.m.

鈥淧eople, especially young children, may be tempted to look up during the eclipse, but it鈥檚 not safe to do so without proper protection,鈥� says Hyde. 鈥淎nd, sunglasses are definitely not protective and shouldn鈥檛 be used when viewing the eclipse, but there are safe ways to do it.鈥�

How do you look at the eclipse safely? Use solar viewing glasses, a pin hole camera or special solar filters on a telescope or binoculars.

A solar eclipse, which is fairly rare, is when the moon casts its shadow on the Earth. It is different from a lunar eclipse, which occurs when the moon moves into Earth鈥檚 shadow.

Infographics

Ways to safely observe the sun:

View the PDF version: Ways to safely observe the sun [PDF]

What is a solar eclipse:

View the PDF version: What is a solar eclipse? [PDF]

The post Safe solar and eclipse viewing tips and tricks ahead of the main event on April 8 appeared first on Faculty of Science.

With the recent advances in machine learning techniques, Joel Zylberberg, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at 91亚色, decided it would be useful to science students to understand these methods, so he developed a graduate course to share his knowledge.

His course, Deep Learning for Physicists, made its debut in 2021 and was repeated in 2022. Its positive reception encouraged Zylberberg to think more broadly, and this year he is offering the course through the to graduate students from the 12 Ontario universities that are members of the institute.

鈥淚 like the idea of having more downstream impact from my teaching, working with a class of 35 rather than five,鈥� Zylberberg said. 鈥淭he applications are pretty diverse; students are working with everything from space science to quantum mechanics. I get to interact with all of this fun science through a set of methods that I know pretty well.鈥�

He noted that the core machine learning ideas date back to the 1980s and 1990s, 鈥渂ut more sophisticated hardware now allows us to make models on a different scale.鈥�

鈥淢achine learning methods have come to dominate a lot of quantitative work and I wanted to give graduate students a strong foundation,鈥� he continued. 鈥淐omputer science students may have done a course or two in machine learning, but there鈥檚 no undergraduate course available for natural science students. Most of the students who enrol in the course have a pretty sophisticated mathematics background with solid undergraduate training in calculus. About half of them now have some prior machine learning experience and come to the course to learn to think about this topic in a more systematic way.鈥�

The first half of the course is devoted to understanding the theory of why systems are built in a particular way and how they work; the second half of the course focuses on applying the theory. The assignments require students to make various machine learning applications and their final project asks them to solve a scientific problem using the course methods.

Jordan Krywonos, a 91亚色 PhD student in cosmology, took the course last year and now serves as a teaching assistant for the course.

鈥淢y supervisor had an idea for a project that involved machine learning, but neither of us had experience with these methods,鈥� said Krywonos, who is based at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ont. 鈥淚t was a good opportunity to have expert guidance in how to solve any machine learning problems we encountered.鈥�

She applied machine learning to her work in predicting the dark matter halos for a population of galaxies, a project Krywonos scaled up afterward.

鈥淚 continue to use the course techniques for this ongoing project,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 trying various machine learning algorithms to see which one has the best performance.鈥�

In another example, one of the graduate students in Zylberberg鈥檚 lab found a way to use machine learning to see glowing cells in a mouse鈥檚 brain more clearly by using a model that removed much of the data noise from the measuring device, improving the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 20.

During the course, Zylberberg has the class review research papers together so they can analyze the machine learning applications employed in each study. For Krywonos, it has been helpful, since machine learning is being used more frequently in cosmology today.

鈥淲hen I read through a research paper now, I can understand and analyze it better,鈥� she said.

This year鈥檚 class is being taught in hyflex fashion: all of the students, whether at 91亚色 or at other universities, have the option of coming to class in-person or joining via Zoom. The online option allows students across Ontario to enrol in a valuable course to which they wouldn鈥檛 have access otherwise, while the in-person option provides students with the opportunity to enjoy a traditional classroom setting. No matter which option they choose, Zylberberg aims to provide them with an equitable experience.

鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten a lot of practice using hybrid formats over the last few years, given the pandemic,鈥� Zylberberg said.

The final few sessions of the class are devoted to a mini-conference where the students present their projects, honing skills that will be useful in the workplace.

鈥淪cientists need to be able to communicate what they are doing and why,鈥� Zylberberg said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a broadly useful skill in academic research, as well as in industry where one might be selling a product or pitching a new venture to investors.鈥�

Cheryl van Daalen Smith, FGS associate dean, academic said, 鈥淲ith its relevant subject matter, its accessible delivery mode and its broad reach, Deep Learning for Physicists is an example of the innovative graduate courses that the Faculty of Graduate Studies is proud to offer.鈥�

The post Physics professor shares machine learning knowledge with academic community appeared first on Faculty of Science.

It may be wintertime, but the night sky is still alight with star gazing possibilities this holiday season, starting with the Geminid meteor shower.

鈥淭his winter leading up to the new year looks to be a great one for astronomy. Although it gets quite chilly in Ontario, if you wrap up carefully there are a few events this winter to look forward to,鈥� says 91亚色 Assistant Professor , director of the Allan I. Carswell Astronomical Observatory, who is available to comment on the last astronomical wonders of 2023.

The first sky-watching spectacle will be the Geminid meteor show, which will peak Dec. 14 and 15, and is considered one of the best displays with as many as 120 meteors (or shooting stars) per hour. It owes its name to the constellation Gemini where the shooting stars seem to originate from.

The Geminids are associated with the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, and when Earth zips through its debris trail, the resulting dust grains appear as shooting stars. There will be many chances to see this one, and although dark skies are recommended for viewing, no binoculars or telescopes are needed.

The winter solstice is up next. Anyone watching the sunrise on winter solstice may notice that the sun is quite far to the south. 鈥淭his is the southernmost latitude for the sun during the day due to the 23.4-degree tilt of the Earth,鈥� says Hyde. 鈥淎fter the solstice, the sun begins moving north again as it goes across the sky.鈥�

The points between the December (winter) and June (summer) solstices are important for anyone looking to place a sundial in their backyard or solar panels, says Hyde. This year鈥檚 winter solstice is marked at 10:27 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 21 with the solstice sunset at a very easy to catch 4:41 p.m. in Ontario.

The next noteworthy event is on Dec. 26 when what is known as the 鈥淐old Moon鈥� or full moon is in the night sky. It will be at its fullest at 7:33 p.m. in Toronto.

鈥淪ince it is the closest full moon to the winter solstice, in ancient times it would be used to mark solstice celebrations. 鈥楥old Moon鈥� is an accurate name for the full moon on the shortest day and is a bit of ancient astronomy we can appreciate in the modern day,鈥� says Hyde.

The full moon occurs when the sun and moon are aligned on opposite sides of Earth. When you see the full moon directly overhead in the sky, the sun is beneath your feet on the other side of the planet. Rising at 4:09 p.m. ET and setting at 7:54 a.m. ET on Dec 26, this full moon will be widely visible for the whole night and well worth gazing through a pair of binoculars, says Hyde.

That rounds up 2023 for astronomical events, but the New Year brings Earth the closest to the sun it can get 鈥� called Earth鈥檚 perihelion 鈥� at 7:38 a.m. ET on Jan. 2, 2024. At that time, Earth will be only 147,100,632 km away from the Sun.

Just into the new year, the Quadrantids meteor shower will begin Jan. 3, 2024, but it鈥檚 challenging to see and its peak lasts only a few hours. Interestingly, the constellation it was named for, Quadrans Muralis, no longer exists, says Hyde. Today, the region of the sky to look towards for this meteor shower is known as the Bootes constellation.

The post Night skies to deliver winter wonderland of light shows this holiday season appeared first on Faculty of Science.

Media Release from November 21, 2023

Faced with images that break the expected pattern, like a do not enter sign where a stop sign is expected, how does the brain react and learn compared to being shown images which match what was predicted?

That was the question a team, including 91亚色, set out to answer. A long-standing theory suggests the brain learns a predictive model of the world and its internal predictions are updated when incoming sensory data proves them wrong. However, what the researchers found surprised them, says 91亚色 Faculty of Science Associate Professor Joel Zylberberg, co-corresponding author of the newly published paper.

鈥淭esting this theory has always been a challenge,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e needed to be able to measure the top-down signals to the sensory areas of the brain over long periods of time to show how the brain learns new sensory input patterns.鈥�

Using a mouse model, the researchers displayed images of visual patterns over multiple days, then presented other images that violated those patterns, while measuring the brain鈥檚 activity in the visual cortex, where visual information from the retina is processed. The idea was to test how the neurons reacted to the new pattern-violating sensory information.

Several of the researchers, including Zylberberg, are Fellows in the 鈥檚 Learning in Machines and Brains group, which conducted the research as part of the Allen Institute for Brain Science鈥檚 Brain Observatory and its OpenScope program. OpenScope has been compared to an observatory where astronomers work together to study the universe, only this time researchers are sharing data to study the brain.

The measurements were taken at the neurons鈥� distal apical dendrites of the visual cortex, which receive top-down signals, and at their cell bodies, which receive bottom-up signals. They wanted to know if the distal apical dendrites processed visual stimuli differently from their cell bodies when the signals both matched and violated expected patterns.

It turns out, the brain鈥檚 response to image patterns that violate the brain鈥檚 predictions, evolves differently over time when compared to pattern-matching images.

鈥淪urprisingly, the distal apical dendrites responses grew significantly over time becoming increasingly sensitive to inputs that violate the patterns, while the cell bodies lost their initially strong sensitivity,鈥� says Zylberberg, a computational neuroscientist. 鈥淭his finding could offer critical insight into sensory computation and predictive learning in the brain.鈥�

The finding suggests that the pattern-violating stimuli drove the changes and different forms of pattern-violating stimuli may elicit different kinds of prediction errors than expected. It points to a component of the brain that could have a distinct and important role in sensory learning not previously known.

鈥淜nowing how the brain processes new visual sensory information is important for developing better machine learning algorithms and applications which could hopefully help restore people鈥檚 sight in the future,鈥� says Zylberberg.

The paper, , was published today in JNeurosci, the Journal of Neuroscience.

The post Researchers help unravel brain processes involved in vision appeared first on Faculty of Science.

Research, led by 91亚色 PhD student Nelson Nunes and supervised by Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar Nobert Bartel, verified Albert Einstein鈥檚 theory of general relativity and the Einstein equivalence principle (EEP) by measuring gravitational redshift 鈥� a change in the frequency of a lightwave 鈥� and the slowing of time over distances as far as the moon, of about 350,000 kilometres.

The EEP is a cornerstone of general relativity and predicts the existence of gravitational redshift. The EEP states that the gravitational mass of an object is equal to inertial mass. For instance, standing on Earth and experiencing weight is equivalent to being accelerated in a spacecraft far away from Earth without the influence of gravity.

鈥淭esting the EEP is thought to be decisive to test gravitational theories, including Einstein鈥檚 general relativity,鈥� said Bartel. 鈥淔inding inconsistencies could perhaps help with generating new ideas on how to combine gravitational theories with the other pillar of our modern understanding of the physical world, which is quantum theory.鈥�

The international group of astrophysicists involved in the project, which included 91亚色 Senior Research Associate Michael Bietenholz and scientists from Russia, the Netherlands and Australia, used a highly accurate clock on a spacecraft named RadioAstron, which was launched in 2011 in an elliptical orbit around Earth, to obtain the measurements.

Their measurements 鈥� published in the journal 鈥� showed that time on Earth flows slower by 0.7 times a billionth of what it is on the spacecraft far away from Earth 鈥� which adds up to a 20-millisecond difference in one whole year. Although the difference is miniscule, the change in time verifies the EEP, the overarching focus of the research.

One consequence of the EEP is the changing flow of time in a gravitational field and, closely related, the gravitational redshift. Gravitational redshift has the effect of shifting waves to lower frequencies; with light, this means a shift to red. With respect to time, gravitational redshift should cause time to slow down.

鈥淎ll clocks are based on oscillators and tick according to how fast they oscillate,鈥� said Nunes. 鈥淪o the gravitational redshift has fundamental repercussions on the flow of time in a gravitational field. In other words, if we are far away from Earth in space and let our clock fall toward Earth, we should be able to measure the clock ticking slower and slower the more it approaches Earth. In the extreme case, were our clock to fall towards the event horizon of a black hole, a place of no return, we would expect to see time slowing down so much that at some point it would stop altogether.鈥�

Although the team鈥檚 results are about 10 times less accurate than previous measurements reported in 2018 by a separate team using European Galileo navigation satellites, their experiment covers a much larger distance. Whereas the 2018 study measured gravitational redshift as far as about 25,000 kilometres from Earth, Nunes鈥� measurements went as far as 350,000 kilometres from Earth. The 91亚色 team says the measurements could be improved further and with future similar space missions, could reach 1,000 times higher accuracies.

The post Researchers verify Einstein鈥檚 theory of general relativity appeared first on Faculty of Science.

This story is published in 驰贵颈濒别鈥檚 New Faces feature issue 2023. Every September, YFile introduces and welcomes those joining the 91亚色 community, and those with new appointments.

The 91亚色 Faculty of Science welcomes 14 new faculty members this fall.

鈥淲e are thrilled to welcome our newest cohort of high-calibre researchers and instructors to our five departments and one division,鈥� said Dean of Science Rui Wang. 鈥淏y recruiting talented people with diverse backgrounds, world views and expertise, we are not only ensuring the best learning experience for our students, but also cultivating integrity and principles of equity, diversity and inclusion in our community and in all that we do at the Faculty of Science.鈥�

Eryn McFarlane

Eryn McFarlane joins the Department of Biology as an assistant professor. She researches anthropogenic hybridization, using both the genetics of wild animals and slightly less wild computer simulations for theoretical work. McFarlane did her undergraduate and master鈥檚 degrees at the University of Guelph. After Guelph, she was awarded a Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarship for her PhD at Uppsala University in Sweden, followed by a Swedish Research Council International Postdoc Grant to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Most recently, she has been part of a National Science Foundation-funded project studying predictive modelling at the University of Wyoming.

In the future, her research group will continue work to understand and predict anthropogenic hybridization, with a particular focus on understanding the context dependence of genetic incompatibilities in changing environments.

Bill Kim

Bill Kim joined the Faculty of Science as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. He completed his honours bachelor of science degree under the supervision of Professor G. Andrew Woolley at the University of Toronto. Kim then pursued a direct PhD degree with Professor David R. Liu at Harvard University from 2012 to 2018, during which time Kim contributed to the burgeoning field of genome editing. Afterwards, he applied his genome editing expertise at Pairwise Plants, a startup company focused on agriculture.

Kim also worked as a senior scientist and the director of the Mammalian Cell Facility. There, he expanded the mutagenic capabilities of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) base editors and developed novel sequence replacement methods. Subsequently, he transitioned into academia, where he could engage in teaching and mentorship of young scientists alongside spearheading a research program with significant impact.

Kim is a world leader in genome editing technology development. Throughout his scientific career spanning 11 years, his work on genome editing technology development has been published in world-class journals including Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications and Science Advances. His research group specializes in engineering biomolecules to accelerate biological discovery. He develops novel CRISPR mutagens capable of generating new forms of targeted genetic variations and studies how these tools can be applied to advance human health and agricultural biotechnology.

Lana H茅bert

On July 1, H茅bert began a three-year term as a contractually-limited assistant professor (teaching stream) within the Department of Chemistry. She received her honours bachelors of science degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2013 before obtaining a master of science degree from Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) in 2018, and remained there to pursue a doctoral degree, to be conferred this fall.

Throughout graduate school, H茅bert has frequently published and presented on research topics such as the preparation and properties of new fluorescent materials for organic electronics; her discovery of a previously unknown chemiluminescent reaction; and topics relating to crystallography and crystal engineering.

Regarding avenues of future research, her interests predominantly lie in the area of chemical education research, namely: the construction of novel, effective pedagogical approaches for organic chemistry instruction; the investigation of any bio-psycho-socio-economic factors that correlate with interest and aptitude towards chemistry curricula, pedagogies and teaching styles; and unique methods of incorporating X-ray crystallography content within undergraduate chemistry curricula.

H茅bert is an active member within the Canadian chemistry and North American crystallography communities. As a vocal proponent of furthering decolonisation, equity, diversity and inclusion work in science and academia, and also as one of the few transgender chemistry professors in Canada, she has served on several committees furthering diversity and inclusion ideals in both national (Canadian Society for Chemistry, CSC-WIDE) and institutional (WLU) settings. Serving her community in this way has strongly informed the teaching philosophy, and overall commitment to a pedagogy of care, that she employs in her courses.

Eager and excited to share her love of the chemical sciences, H茅bert hopes to instil a similar passion for chemistry within her future students.

Dongchen Li

Dongchen Li joins the Department of Mathematics & Statistics as an assistant professor. He received his PhD in actuarial science from the University of Waterloo in 2017. Before joining 91亚色, he was an assistant professor at the University of St. Thomas (2017 to 2021) and Brock University (2021 to 2023). His research focuses on principal-agent problems in (re)insurance design, risk management in finance and insurance, designing and improving modern insurance products such as variable annuities, and optimal financial and insurance decisions made by individuals.

His expertise is growing in cutting-edge areas, including machine learning in insurance and the digital transformation of the insurance industry. His work has been published in prestigious actuarial science journals like Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, ASTIN Bulletin, Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, and Journal of Risk and Insurance. His research program is currently funded by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council. He is also an associate of the Society of Actuaries.

Kaiqiong Zhao

Kaiqiong Zhao recently joined the Faculty of Science as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics in July 2023. She obtained her PhD in biostatistics at McGill University in October 2021. Upon completing her doctoral studies, she was awarded the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute distinguished postdoctoral fellowship, which led her to a postdoctoral position co-hosted by the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto.

Zhao鈥檚 research program is dedicated to developing innovative and robust statistical methods tailored to the complexities of modern massive and complex data. She has authored multiple publications and developed R packages aimed at optimizing the analysis and interpretation of sequencing-derived DNA methylation data.

Her research pursuits extend to the integration of heterogeneous multi-source data and the enhancement of causal estimates derived from summary-level genetic association data. Furthermore, Zhao actively participates in collaborative scientific research endeavours, contributing to the advancement of statistical methods in various domains such as the analysis of sequencing-derived chromatin immunoprecipitation data, electroencephalogram data and clinical data.

Miles Couchman

Miles Couchman joins the Faculty of Science at 91亚色 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics. Prior to joining 91亚色, he received his undergraduate degree in physics from McMaster University and his PhD in applied mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by postdoctoral work in the Department of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.

His research is currently focused in the realm of fluid mechanics, where he has considered a variety of topics from pilot-wave hydrodynamics to geophysical turbulence, using a combination of experimental, computational and theoretical approaches.

Recently, he has been exploring how machine learning and high-performance computing techniques may be used to gain insight into turbulent mixing processes within the ocean, a key area of uncertainty in climate modelling. His work has been supported by funding from NSERC, MathWorks and the U.S. Department of Energy through INCITE Supercomputing Grants.

In collaboration with the Massive Open Online Course provider MITx, Couchman has also helped develop a series of undergraduate mathematics courses that are available to a global audience. By incorporating mathematical case studies of complex real-world phenomena into the curriculum, he hopes to inspire broader interest in using mathematics to gain a deeper understanding of our natural world.

Mohamed Omar

Mohamed Omar joins the Faculty of Science as a full professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics. His research focuses on algebraic techniques in enumerative and geometric combinatorics and discrete mathematics.

Omar has received national awards for his research, including being the inaugural recipient of the American Mathematical Society鈥檚 Claytor-Gilmer Fellowship and an inaugural recipient of the Karen EDGE Fellowship, both celebrating mid-career research. He has also earned the Henry L. Alder Award, the preeminent junior faculty national prize given by the Mathematical Association of America.

Paul Scholz

Paul Scholz joins the Department of Physics & Astronomy at 91亚色 as an assistant professor. Scholz is an astrophysicist whose research centres on observational studies of transient and variable phenomena.

He studies rapidly rotating neutron stars, called pulsars, their highly-magnetized cousins, called magnetars, and the mysterious phenomenon of fast radio bursts (FRBs). Scholz primarily uses the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) to uncover the nature of FRBs and use them as probes of the universe.

Prior to his appointment at 91亚色, Scholz was a Dunlap and NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He received his PhD in physics from McGill University in 2017. While a PhD candidate at McGill, he discovered the first repetition from an FRB source. This landmark discovery showed that the FRB phenomenon could not be caused solely by a cataclysmic phenomenon.

Scholz held a Covington Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory from 2016 to 2019, where he worked on the construction and commissioning of the CHIME Fast Radio Burst instrument. CHIME has revolutionized the field of fast radio bursts, by discovering several of them per day. Scholz and CHIME鈥檚 pioneering work on fast radio bursts has been recognized by an American Astronomical Society Lancelot M. Berkeley Prize, which Scholz accepted on behalf of the CHIME team, and an NSERC Brockhouse Prize.

Nikita Blinov

Nikita Blinov joins the Department of Physics & Astronomy as an assistant professor.

Blinov is interested in understanding how interactions between fundamental particles shortly after the Big Bang shape the observed universe. He uses theoretical models that include new particles and interactions to explore problems such as the identity of dark matter (a major constituent of our universe), origins of neutrino masses and others. Blinov examines the consistency of these models against existing observations and develops new ways of testing them using accelerator and precision experiments, or with astrophysical observations.

Blinov completed his graduate studies in the theory group at TRIUMF, Canada鈥檚 particle accelerator centre. Before joining 91亚色, he worked as a postdoctoral Fellow at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and at the University of Victoria.

Charles-脡douard Boukar茅

Charles-脡douard Boukar茅 joins the Department of Physics & Astronomy as an assistant professor. Boukar茅 is an Earth and planetary scientist interested in the interior structure and evolution of rocky planets. He completed an engineering degree in geology and a master鈥檚 in science in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the ENSG Nancy / Universit茅 Lorraine in France. He received his PhD in geophysics from Universit茅 de Lyon in France in 2016.

Boukar茅 worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University in Rhode Island from 2016 to 2018, where he initiated his work on the early evolution of the Earth鈥檚 moon. Before joining 91亚色, he had a postdoctoral position at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France. In 2022, Boukar茅 was awarded the Doornbos Memorial Prize, which is presented to a young scientist by the Committee on Studies of the Earth鈥檚 Deep Interior for outstanding work.

Boukar茅鈥檚 research focuses on the early evolution of rocky planets and planetary scale solidification processes. He aims to better constrain how initial conditions govern the long-term evolution of planetary interiors. During his PhD and postdoctoral appointments, he proposed innovative thermodynamics and multi-phase fluid dynamics models of magma ocean crystallization. He applied his approaches to the early evolution of the Earth, the moon, mercury and lava exoplanets. His main research includes high-pressure phase equilibria modelling and developing computational fluid dynamics models. Boukar茅 is excited to pursue his research and explore new scientific horizons with students at 91亚色.

Jeremy Webb

Jeremy Webb joins the Division of Natural Science within the Department of Science, Technology & Society as an assistant professor, teaching stream. Webb has a master of science in space studies from the International Space University and a PhD in physics and astronomy from McMaster University. He went on to complete postdoctoral studies on star cluster evolution at Indiana University and the University of Toronto through an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship.

In 2019, Webb was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where he studied planetary system evolution in star clusters, stellar streams and galaxy structure. He also led a summer undergraduate research program, taught the two largest introductory astronomy courses in Canada and taught an astrobiology-themed course about life on other worlds. At 91亚色, Webb looks to continue teaching astrobiology- and astronomy-themed courses, while finding active and interdisciplinary ways to connect with students.

Yuqing Feng

Yuqing Feng will be joining the Department of Biology at 91亚色 as an assistant professor in January 2024. Feng received her bachelor of science from the University of Saskatchewan. She completed her PhD degree in Linda Chelico鈥檚 laboratory in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Saskatchewan. For Feng鈥檚 PhD, she worked with APOBEC3 enzymes from the AID/APOBEC super family of cytidine deaminases and biochemically characterized the function of these enzymes as host restriction factors against RNA viruses and retrotransposons. As a recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research postdoctoral fellowship, Feng is currently a postdoctoral Fellow in Alberto Martin鈥檚 laboratory in the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto. There, she is working on antibody gene diversification mechanisms in B cells. Feng鈥檚 research interests include DNA damage and repair mechanisms that create genetic diversity in immunity and cancer.

Luz Adriana Puentes J谩come

Luz Adriana Puentes J谩come joins the Department of Biology as an assistant professor, teaching stream. Puentes completed her undergraduate degree in environmental engineering in her native Colombia. She completed her master of applied science degree at Carleton University and her PhD at the Centre for Applied Bioscience and Bioengineering (BioZone) at the University of Toronto. During this time, she actively engaged in teaching biotechnology and bioprocesses. Puentes was awarded a Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Postgraduate Fellowship which took her to Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, to conduct research on the characterization and scale up of anaerobic mixed cultures for bioremediation applications.

Puentes is deeply inspired by her colleagues and collaborators in Ontario working to apply biotechnology in areas such as the production of sustainable food and biochemicals, cell and gene therapy, and environmental remediation. She is excited to combine her passion for teaching and learning with her interest in advancing biotechnology in Canada. Thus, she joins colleagues in the Department of Biology to continue to build the biotechnology programs that will be offered at the Markham campus in the Fall of 2024.

Gordon Fitch

Gordon Fitch joins the Department of Biology as an assistant professor. Fitch is an ecologist, studying how environmental stressors shape ecological interactions and thereby influence ecosystem function and biodiversity. Much of his work focuses on interactions between plants, bees, and bee disease. He uses a combination of field surveys, lab experiments, and theoretical modeling to derive mechanistic understanding of these complex interactions and leverage that understanding to promote biodiversity conservation and just human flourishing. He joins 91亚色鈥檚 interdisciplinary Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation (BEEc).

Before joining the faculty at 91亚色, Fitch was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his master of science degree and PhD from the University of Michigan. Prior to this, he was a middle school science teacher. Fitch retains his passion for communicating science to diverse audiences and promoting science as a tool for liberation and improved relations between people and planet. At 91亚色, he is excited to engage in research and teaching that advances transformative understanding of and appreciation for the complex web of interactions undergirding life on earth.

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