Rituparna Kanungo, Chair of the Liaison Committee
(term ends June 2021)
Dr. Kanungo is a Professor of Physics at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, with prior work experience in Japan and Germany. Her research area is in experimental subatomic physics, with a specialization in reaction spectroscopy of rare isotopes. She is an active researcher at TRIUMF, where she has been leading CFI projects for facilities aimed for such experiments. In addition, she has research programs in other international facilities, namely GSI in Germany, RIKEN in Japan and NSCL in USA that build on strong international collaborations. She has authored many peer reviewed research articles. Her research expertise is recognized through a number of invited talks among which is the honorable invitation to speak at the Nobel Symposium. She has been the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship and the GSI Exotic Nuclei Community award. She was also awarded the NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement and, in 2018, the CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Subatomic Physics. She hosted and chaired the international conference DREB 2016 in Halifax. She is currently the President of the Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Chair of the CAP-NSERC Liaison Committee. She has also served on the Policy and Planning Advisory Committee of TRIUMF.
Sanjeev Sehara, Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
(term ends June 2022)
Jean-Pierre St-Maurice, Near-Earth and Space Physics
(term ends 2020)
Prof. St-Maurice has been a full Professor of Physics and Engineering Physics, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Environment Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon since 2004. In 2009, he became Chair of the Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He was previously a full Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario for 17 years. Prof. St-Maurice is one of two Principal investigators for the five Canadian SuperDARN radars. He is the Deputy Director of a project funded through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, which was used to build an AMISER incoherent scatter radar in Resolute Bay, Canada. This radar provides Canada with a state-of-the-art tool to study the ionosphere and upper atmosphere. Prof St-Maurice’s research interests include the electrodynamics of ionospheric plasmas, the kinetic theory of gases in the ionosphere, plasma instability and transport theory in natural media and the study of plasma structures in the ionosphere. With his students and numerous collaborators across the world, Prof St- Maurice balances the theoretical aspects of his research with in-depth data studies from satellites and various types of radars. Prof St-Maurice has been a visiting scientist in numerous countries, has served on several boards and committees and is a long-standing member of the Canadian Association of Physicists and of the American Geophysical Union.
Iris Dillmann, Subatomic Physics
(term ends 2021)
Dr. Iris Dillmann is a Research Scientist at TRIUMF since 2013 and Adjunct Professor at the Department for Physics and Astronomy at the University of Victoria. Dr. Dillmann obtained her PhD at the University of Basel/ Switzerland and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the TU Munich/ Germany. In 2010 she received a prestigious Helmholtz Young Investigators Grant and worked at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt/ Germany and the University of Giessen. Her field of research is experimental nuclear physics and astrophysics, with a focus on the creation of heavy elements in stars in the rapid neutron capture process. She received an NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement in 2014.
Luc Beaulieu, Biomedical and Biological Physics
(term ends 2022)
Karen Kavanagh, Quantum and Soft Condensed Matter Physics
(term ends 2021)
Karen L. Kavanagh is a Professor of Physics and an Associate Member of the Department of Chemistry and School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. She also directs the 4D Labs Electron Imaging and Holography Facility, which enables hands-on training in electron microscopy techniques. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 1987 from Cornell University and then worked for a year at IBM T. J. Watson Research Labs, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (postdoctoral fellowships), moving to the University of California, San Diego (Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering) in 1988, before returning to Canada in 2000 to her current position. She is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics and has published over a hundred refereed scientific papers. Her research is focused on atomic interfaces and nanostructures with recent interest in nanocontacts, epitaxial electrodeposited metal-semiconductor interfaces, channeling and diffraction using helium ion microscopy, defects in nanowire heterostructures, electron holography, and two-dimensional materials.
François Légaré, Atomic and Molecular Physics, Optics and Lasers, and Plasmas
(term ends 2020)
Lorne Nelson, Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
(term ends 2020)
Dr. Lorne Nelson is professor and chair of the department of Physics & Astronomy at Bishop’s University. His research interests are focused on stellar and high-energy astrophysics as it pertains to white dwarfs, neutron stars, dark matter, and supernova explosions. He received his PhD in astrophysics from Queen’s University and subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships at MIT and CITA (Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics) where he and his collaborators worked on the theoretical structure and evolution of a new class of substellar objects known as Brown Dwarfs. He has served on CITA Council for several years and on CanTAC, the time allocation committee for the Gemini, JCMT and CFHT telescopes for three years and was the chair of the Galactic Panel in 2012. From 2013 to 2016 he served as a Director of CASCA (Canadian Astronomical Society). He is currently serving on the management board of ACURA (Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy) and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ). He was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics and has held other awards such as the Reinhardt Fellowship, Merite Estrien, and the William and Nancy Turner (Chancellor’s) Award for Teaching.
EX OFFICIO MEMBERS
NSERC REPRESENTATIVES
Emily Diepenveen, Team Leader, overseeing the Physics and Computer Science portfolio within the Mathematical, Environmental and Physical Sciences Division of NSERC’s Research Grants and Scholarships Directorate
Elizabeth Boston, Director of NSERC’s Mathematical, Environmental and Physical Division within the Research Grants and Scholarships Directorate
Philip Bale, Program Officer, Research Grants, Physics and Computer Science
Ed Irving, Manager, College and Community Innovation program, Research Partnerships Directorate, Colleges, Commercialization, and Portfolio Planning
Kari Dalnoki-Veress, Chair of NSERC’s Physics Evaluation Group
CAP REPRESENTATIVES
Ubi Wichoski, Director of Academic Affairs, Canadian Association of Physicists
Francine Ford, Executive Director, Canadian Association of Physicists