ICA Events:

ICA Conference - 16-18 October 2009

Plaskett Award

ICA's First PhD

Data Cave Grand Opening

CBC National News Coverage of the Data Cave

Remote Collaboration Room Opening Reception

The Institute for Computational Astrophysics (ICA) was formed to expand an area of expertise within the Department of Astronomy and Physics at Saint Mary’s University. Since its creation in late 2001, the ICA has grown to five full time faculty members, and at any time there are on the order of six graduate students and three post doctoral fellows amongst the ICA membership. This does not include the other faculty, graduate students, and post doctoral fellows in the Department of Astronomy and Physics. The ICA promotes research in computational astrophysics through the research and publication activities of the individual members, by hosting visitors and colloquium speakers, and by having all its members participate in national and international conferences.

The ICA is also responsible for providing its members with access to high performance computing resources. The ICA has its own small cluster for code development, but most computing is done through ACEnet, the academic research high performance computing provider for Atlantic Canada. ACEnet also provides other collaboration and visualization tools on the Saint Mary’s campus. The ICA has played a significant role in the formation and direction of ACEnet, with one ICA member serving as the Principal Investigator of ACEnet since the project was funded, two others having served or currently serving on the Research Directorate, and one member on the Resource Allocation Committee. ACEnet also employs two full time technical support personnel stationed at Saint Mary’s, and ICA members have been major beneficiaries of their expertise.

ICA Conference

16-18 October 2009

The ICA is hosting a conference on computational astrophysics on October 16-18, 2009. It will be held on the Saint Mary’s University campus in Halifax. We expect to have five sessions and papers are solicited from any research involving high performance computing in astrophysics. More details can be found at the conference web site: www.smu.ca/icaconfernce

Plaskett Award

The ICA is pleased to announce that Dr. Catherine Lovekin, the first ICA and Department of Astronomy and Physics Ph. D. recipient, has been awarded the Plaskett medal for this year. The Plaskett medal is awarded jointly by the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada “to the Ph.D. graduate from a Canadian university who is judged to have submitted the most outstanding doctoral thesis in astronomy or astrophysics in the preceding two years”, according to Dr. Paul Hickson, the CASCA president. Catherine’s thesis, entitled “Non-radial Oscillations in Rotating Intermediate Mass Stars”, is based on her research into the modes of oscillation of moderately and rapidly rotating stars and the observable effects of these oscillations. Her thesis committee was composed of her research supervisor, ICA Director Dr. Robert Deupree, ICA faculty members Drs. David Guenther and Ian Short, and Dr. Arthur Cox, the external examiner. After her successful defense in August, 2008, Catherine took up a post doctoral position with Dr. Marie-Jo Goupil working on stellar models associated with COROT satellite data at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon. Congratulations, Catherine!

ICA's First PhD

14 August 2008

The ICA is pleased to announce that Catherine Lovekin successfully defended her Ph. D. thesis on August 14, 2008. Her thesis is entitled “Non-Radial Oscillations of Rotating Intermediate Mass Stars”. The thesis committee was composed of Drs. Robert Deupree (thesis supervisor), David Guenther, and Ian Short, with Dr. Arthur N. Cox, formerly of Los Alamos National Laboratory and an expert in pulsating stars, serving as the external examiner.

Dr. Cox gave a colloquium at the ICA Friday afternoon, and there was a reception celebrating both Dr. Cox’s visit and Catherine’s successful defense at the Deupree’s on Friday night.

Catherine’s Ph. D. is not only the first for the ICA and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, but also the first in any of the sciences at Saint Mary’s. Catherine is busy making the suggested modifications to her thesis before taking up her post doctoral position in France in the middle of September.

ACEnet’s

Data Cave Grand Opening

10 June 2008

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CBC National News Coverage

Members of the ICA featured prominently in a story about the ACEnet Data Cave shown on the CBC National on Tuesday, November 6, 2007. Robert Deupree and graduate student, Jonathan Ramsey, were joined by the ACEnet system administrator stationed at Saint Mary's University, Phil Romkey, in the interview conducted by CBC’s Tom Murphy. The interview can be seen on the video window on the CBC news web site at:

http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/murphy-datacave-071106.wmv

REMOTE COLLABORATION ROOM

OPENING RECEPTION

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