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After more than fifty-five years, Laurentian’s Doran Planetarium continues to educate and entertain astronomy enthusiasts.

After more than fifty-five years, Laurentian’s Doran Planetarium continues to educate and entertain astronomy enthusiasts.

New coordination team guided by Dr. Hoi Cheu is passionate about diversifying teachings outside the classroom.

(February 8, 2023) - Star gazing allows us to observe the many wonders of the night sky. It is an enjoyable pastime filled with many educational opportunities; star gazers often speak about how rewarding an experience it is to identify constellations such as the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) or Cassiopeia. And for those interested in astronomy, planetariums, which are essentially theatres designed to project a simulation of the night sky on a dome ceiling, offer out-of-this-world locations to learn and be entertained by the plethora of teachings and stories about the night sky. 

Laurentian University’s 10-meter wide Doran Planetarium recently welcomed a new Director, Dr. Hoi Cheu. Full Professor of Liberal Arts and interdisciplinary researcher, Cheu has been teaching at Laurentian since 1999. He is well known amongst his students and colleagues for his engaging lectures. In 2011, he received a Teaching Excellence award, presented annually to faculty members who have demonstrated an outstanding ability to impart knowledge and invoke enthusiasm from their students. About his recent appointment to the Planetarium, Cheu fittingly enthused that he is “‘over the moon’ excited.” 

“I was a science student until my second year of university,” said Cheu. “When I was in high school, astronomy was ‘my thing.’ I chaired the Science Club and my first project for the Joint School Science Exhibition was called ‘The Life of the Stars.’ In the following year, I led a project to explain how the dome of Hong Kong’s Space Museum was built.” Each of these projects involved about twenty to thirty students taking shifts through ten summer days in Hong Kong’s City Hall. “That was how I turned from being an extreme introvert into a public speaker – explaining astrophysics and the architecture of a planetarium to thousands of people.”  
 
The Doran Planetarium was donated by the Doran family to Laurentian University in 1967. At the time, William J. Doran was the President of Doran Breweries, better known in the Greater Sudbury community as Northern Breweries. 

Until 1970, the Doran Planetarium was located in a portable beside the University’s Science 1 building, after which it was housed in a specially constructed wing of the Fraser Building. Roger Leclaire served as the Planetarium’s Director for its first decade of operations. Thereafter and between 1977-1994, the Planetarium fell under the direction of a variety of professors, predominantly affiliated with the Physics department. 

In 1994, the University funded a complete update of the Planetarium and appointed Professor Paul Émile Legault to serve as its Director. He remained in this role for thirty-nine years, and taught in the University’s Physics department for fifty-four years. 

On January 18, 2023, Laurentian and SNOLAB paid tribute to Legault’s legacy. In this special event, Legault shared his favourite stories about stars and constellations from various traditions. Attendees were enthralled by the magic of the Planetarium, and celebrated Legault’s many years of service. 

“My family, friends and colleagues filled the planetarium for my last presentation as Director,” expressed Legault. “Their presence in such a large number overwhelmed me and I did not expect so many accolades for just doing work I enjoyed. The thoughtful words engraved on the trophy presented to me brought tears to my eyes. The Doran Planetarium has and will always be part of my heart. I am confident that Dr. Cheu, because of his interest and energy, will with his team, successfully continue to open up the minds of young students to science.”

“Paul Émile dedicated his whole career to education,” said Cheu. “And he communicates more than his rich knowledge in astronomy. He teaches children how to be curious while they are amused by the beauty of the night sky. That is invaluable for nurturing young scientific minds. We need a team to match his greatness.”

Alongside Dr. Cheu, the current bilingual team of the Planetarium includes Alexandre Leblanc (Materials Science PhD candidate), Juliette Deloye and Rachel Richardson (Education & Outreach Coordinators of SNOLAB), and Dr. Christine Kraus as supervisor (SNOLAB Research Scientist). Anishinaabe Akinomaagewin Bemwidoor (Knowledge Carrier), William Morin (Human Studies and Interdisciplinarity PhD student) is also a partner, who ensures that the Planetarium has tricultural capabilities. This team extends the reach of the Laurentian and Sudbury communities, as they welcome demonstration requests from any primary or secondary school, as well as other interested groups.

“We are excited about the future of the Planetarium,” informed Cheu. “And we have many plans to enhance the offerings of the Planetarium to members of our community. What we need to remember is that this space is not simply for science education. It also provides excellent opportunities to tell stories. Our Planetarium offers a weatherproof space for Indigenous land-based learning. Virtually, when sitting in the Doran, you are under the sky and can tell stories connected to Indigenous history, wisdom, as well as environmental and scientific knowledge.”

Cheu and team are in the process of applying for grants to turn the Doran Planetarium into a more diverse space for education.“The idea is to enhance this welcoming space to support inclusive teachings beyond the classroom,” said Cheu. “Looking at the cosmos can help us put things into perspective. It helps us recognize our humble existence, our fragile living environment, and our connection to the universe. Learning about astronomy can be deeply spiritual.” 

More information about demonstrations and special events at the Doran Planetarium are available online. 

Ph.D. student collaborates with NASA on cutting-edge research.

Ph.D. student collaborates with NASA on cutting-edge research.

Yeast experiments could address concerns of effects of radiation on human space flight.

(November 15, 2022) - Space exploration fascinates people from across the globe and research that contributes to a better understanding of this other-wordly expanse, including how to keep astronauts safe within this environment, is a cutting-edge topic of inquiry. 

Michel (Mike) Lapointe, Laurentian University Ph.D. student in Biomolecular Sciences research focuses on “The anhydrobiotic radiation response in yeast,” which seeks to address questions about the biological effects of radiation, a potential health concern of human space flight and other occupational exposures. 

Lapointe is a proud Sudburian who graduated from École Secondaire Collège Notre Dame (2013) before pursuing his post-secondary education. He chose to study at Laurentian, earning his B.Sc. in Biomedical Physics (2017) and M.Sc. in Physics with a specialization in Medical Physics (2020). “Continuing my education at Laurentian made sense. I absolutely love research and radiation science has been an interest of mine since starting my undergrad.” 

To study the impacts of radiation on biological systems, and more specifically, how space radiation may impact astronauts, Lapointe is working closely with co-supervisors Dr. Christopher Thome and Dr. Douglas Boreham, committee member Dr. Sujeenthar Tharmalingam, and lab technician Taylor Laframboise. All are affiliated with NOSM University. 

To conduct their research, Lapointe and team are using the same yeast-based technology used by the NASA Ames Research Center team for the BioSentinel experiment, in which desiccated (dried) yeast samples are utilized as living radiation detectors. The NASA team is using this model to study the biological impact of deep-space radiation, whereas Lapointe and team are fully characterizing the radiation response of this model in a laboratory environment. The mechanisms used to repair damage from radiation in yeast are nearly identical to those utilized by humans, making them an ideal substitute for humans.

“The dried yeast is still alive,” explained Lapointe. “That’s one of the really cool things about yeast. Once dried, it’s super robust. These samples don’t really care much about temperature, even extremely cold temperatures found in space…. They also don’t need oxygen. They don’t need nutrients, or water.”

This week, BioSentinel CubeSat satellite containing the NASA yeast samples will be launched into space. “This research has the goal of better understanding what the radiation environment in space is like and what it will do to biological systems. This mission is going into deep space, between 30 and 50 million kilometres from Earth. The NASA team and we, as collaborators, are doing our research so we can figure out what kind of damage, if any, results from deep space radiation exposure in order to better inform future crewed space flights.”

The satellite contains a self-sustaining system programmed to rehydrate the yeast samples once in space and collect data about the effects of radiation on these samples. “Based on the rate of colour change of the dye with which the yeast is rehydrated, we’ll be able to infer how many of them are still alive and how many of them have died because of radiation,” Lapointe surmised.  

Alongside the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Centre (NASA), other research partners include the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, and TRIUMF.

Funding supporting this research is plentiful and derives from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems, Bruce Power, the Canadian Space Agency and the Nuclear Innovation Institute. 

“We’re really excited about this study and the impact it will have,” said Lapointe who also outlined that SNOLAB, a world-class science facility, is another location that has proven useful to his study. This is because his research also considers the impact of natural sources of radiation, such as solar and galactic cosmic radiation, on living organisms. Underground, Lapointe discovered something interesting about the way yeast behaves in the absence of natural background radiation: it is more likely to die off when re-exposed to background radiation after being underground. This discovery wasn’t predicted and informs that more research is needed. 

“Being a part of this research that involves such massive collaborations has been a great experience,” said Lapointe. “Research is something I definitely want to continue doing for the rest of my life.”

We are eager to follow Lapointe’s remaining academic journey and discover the results of his cutting-edge research. 
 

Laurentian Scientists Celebrate $3-Million ‘Breakthrough Prize’ Awarded To Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Project

Laurentian Scientists Celebrate $3-Million ‘Breakthrough Prize’ Awarded To Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Project

November 8, 2015 – The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) Collaboration, represented by Queen’s University professor emeritus Arthur McDonald, have shared the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

 

In particular, Laurentian wants to acknowledge Professor Doug Hallman.  With the steady expansion of Laurentian’s research in particle astrophysics, he and a total of 22 Laurentian faculty members, past graduate students and post-doctoral researchers are all among the recipients of this honour.

 

The Prize was presented by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation “for the fundamental discovery of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics”. The $3-million prize is shared with four other international experimental collaborations studying neutrino oscillations: the Superkamiokande, Kamland, T2K/K2K and Daya Bay scientific collaborations.

 

The research at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, two kilometers underground in Vale’s Creighton mine near Sudbury, Ontario Canada demonstrated that neutrinos change their type – or flavour – as they travel to Earth from the Sun.  The finding proves that neutrinos have a mass greater than zero. The results also confirmed the theories of energy generation in the Sun with great accuracy.

 

Professor McDonald, SNO Project Director, stated: “Our collaboration members are very pleased to receive this testimony to the scientific significance of their work. Our findings are a result of many years of hard work starting in 1984 when our collaboration began with 16 members, led by co-spokesmen Professor George Ewan of Queen’s University and Professor Herb Chen of the University of California, Irvine who were joined in 1985 by Professor David Sinclair of Oxford University. Our international collaboration grew substantially and provided an exciting education for many young scientists over more than 20 years. Our full author list includes over 270 scientists sharing this prize.”

 

The award was presented at a ceremony at the NASA Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California. The ceremony, hosted by comedian Seth Macfarlane, was broadcast live in the U.S. on Sunday, November 8 on the National Geographic Channel, with a one-hour version of the broadcast scheduled for Fox on November 29, at 7 p.m. For more information see breakthroughprize.org.

 

Founded by Russian entrepreneur, venture capitalist and physicist Yuri Milner, The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics recognizes individuals who have made profound contributions to human knowledge. It is open to all physicists — theoretical, mathematical and experimental — working on the deepest mysteries of the Universe. The prize is one of three awarded by the Breakthrough Foundation for “Outstanding contributions in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics.”

 

Along with Dr. Hallman, Professors Jacques Farine, Rizwan Haq, Christine Kraus and Clarence Virtue are the Laurentian faculty who have contributed to the SNO research.  “The good fortune to have worked on a project of fundamental importance, that we believed in passionately, with a terrific group of dedicated and talented physicists was its own reward.  This honour is really icing on the cake,” said Professor Virtue.  

 

“We are delighted to congratulate the Particle Astrophysics Research group at Laurentian on this latest honour,” said Laurentian University President and Vice-Chancellor Dominic Giroux. “Our SNOLAB scientists are truly expanding the boundaries of knowledge about our universe and its building blocks.”

 

Laurentian University was a founding institution in the SNO Collaboration. With the completion of SNO’s measurements in 2006, and analyses in the near future, the members of Laurentian’s Particle Astrophysics Group (numbering 37 researchers in 2015) continue their work in frontier physics at SNOLAB, with major responsibilities and leading roles in the SNO+, HALO, DEAP, PICO and EXO collaborations. The work of the SNO collaboration was also recognized recently with the awarding of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics to Professor McDonald.

 

Backgrounder

Laurentian University celebrates Nobel Prize in Physics

Laurentian University celebrates Nobel Prize in Physics

Colleagues of Dr. Arthur McDonald toast “the ultimate prize in science”

October 9, 2015 – Colleagues and associates of Dr. Arthur McDonald at Laurentian University and at the SNOLAB research facility are applauding the news that Dr. McDonald is a co-winner of the  2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.  Dr. McDonald, emeritus professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario was jointly named this year’s Nobel Laureate with Dr. Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan. Dr. McDonald was honoured for his work in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a collaboration between Laurentian University and five other Canadian universities.

 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prize was awarded to Doctors McDonald and Kajita for their “key contributions to the experiments which demonstrated that neutrinos change identities. This metamorphosis requires that neutrinos have mass. The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe.” (Full release: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/press.html)

 

Word of the Nobel award spread through the Laurentian community “at the speed of a neutrino,” said Dr. Doug Hallman, professor emeritus of Physics at Laurentian University and an early collaborator in the SNOLAB work with Dr. McDonald.  “This is terrific news for all of us who have been engaged in the SNO neutrino research,” said Dr. Hallman.  “This is the ultimate prize in science, and we are thrilled to see the work recognized at this level.”

 

Laurentian University is a founding member of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Institute. Over a 20-year period, Laurentian’s SNO group  has been a major contributor to the design, construction and operations of the SNO laboratory, a unique facility built two kilometers below surface at the Vale Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Ontario. The underground  environment enabled SNO researchers to make their groundbreaking neutrino measurements  with minimal background interference.   More than 150 researchers from universities and research institutions in Canada, the United States and Europe participated in the SNO project.

 

The SNO laboratory ended its data taking in 2006 but analyses and publications of results are  continuing.  The SNO detector is now in the final stages of conversion to a new SNO+ experiment, which will measure lower energy neutrinos from the sun and the earth and search for a rare nuclear decay process to find out more about the nature of neutrinos.

 

Building on the success of the SNO experiment, an expanded underground facility, SNOLAB  has been constructed adjacent to the SNO laboratory and now houses a group of new  experiments. The underground cleanroom facility, the deepest in the world, has the lowest background radiation environment, allowing researchers to take highly sensitive measurements with minimal interference. 

 

“We are thrilled with the awarding of this prize and congratulate Dr. McDonald and all of our faculty and collaborating researchers for their contributions to this exciting area of science over the years,” said Laurentian University President and Vice-Chancellor, Dominic Giroux.  “We welcome the new groups of scientists who will be doing their work at the facility, and are excited by the additional collaborations and research initiatives at SNOLAB as the next generation of underground experiments gets underway.”

 

Laurentian University is working with SNOLAB to organize a national media tour of the SNOLAB facility in the near future.