All posts by Jesse Rogerson
Voting on Increasing the YUGSA Student Levy Happening RIGHT NOW
This directly affects both the grad students of the Physics and Astronomy department in two ways: 1. your tutition, and 2, the amount and quality of beneficial programs/workshops/initiatives that are provided by the GSA directly to us. This INCLUDES our ability to run a ‘Monkey conference.’ If you would like to sign/vote on the issue please come to find Jesse in his office, or at the Pygmy Marmoset conference. All signatures needed by 4pm Friday October 25th, 2013.
Quote from the voting sheet:
Fellow Graduate Students,
Over the years, the York University Graduate Students’ Association (YUGSA) has undergone a few structural changes to better serve its membership. As those changes have resulted in increasing costs of running the YUGSA we are proposing the following referendum question to our membership. Some of the developments that have taken place over the past few years include: a) the size of our membership has increased therefore the costs of providing services has also increased (while the levy amount has remained the same over the years); b) annual increases to staff wages and benefits; c) there has been an increasing demand from graduate students to reopen the grad lounge since its closure last summer; d) ongoing deficit at the end of fiscal year resulting in cuts to services and bursaries. Our aim is to strengthen the YUGSA and reverse the weakening financial situation. We plan to restore the conference, international student, and dependent bursaries, donations and community outreach support funds, thesis and publication support funds, and gender, equity, social, and campaigns funds. And finally, we will aim to increase the Operating Grant Fund by at least 10% to departmental GSAs. Be it resolved that YUGSA will put forward the following referendum question to graduate students:Do you support a one-time increase of $10 for Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) students, prorated for part-time students, to the annual YUGSA levy, indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?
Pygmy Marmoset Conference – List of Speakers
The Pygmy Marmoset Conference is only ONE week away. Hopefully everyone has marked their calendars, and if you haven’t…mark them now! A reminder, the conference is on October 25th, 2013 from 10am – 4pm in PSE 317. Lunch will be provided. We have also put together a tentative schedule below. Barring any unforeseen changes, this will be the schedule we adhere to for the conference. I’ve attempted to group the different types of physics programs we have in our department, in an effort to create some continuity of topic.
The Judging Panel for the Ralph Nicholls Award will be: Jesse (chair), George, Gabriel, Naif
Schedule
10:00-10:20 – coffee,tea, and introduction by PAGE
10:20-10:40 – talk 1 – Omid Rezania – AMO – Physics of protein mobility within the stimulated cells
10:40-11:00 – talk 2 – Urmela Selventhiran – AMO – Time-dependent calculation of tunneling ionization of the molecular hydrogen ion in a strong DC-field
11:00-11:20 – talk 3 – Tsogbayar Tsednee – AMO – Molecular hydrogen in pseudospectral method
11:20-11:40 – talk 4 – Bin Jian – AMO – Double-loop microtraps array for ultracold atoms
10min break
11:50-12:45 – keynote Chris Bergevin
12:45-13:30 – lunch/poster session
13:30-13:50 – talk 5 – Homa Ebrahimikhonacha – BIO – Sonoluminescence
13:50-14:10 – talk 6 – Mark Wurtz – HEP – Higgs and W bosons on a lattice
14:10-14:30 – talk 7 – Andrea Capra – HEP – ALPHA and the Antihydrogen Physics
10 min break
14:40-15:00 – talk 8 – Alexandra Terrana – SPACE – Massive Gravity and its Spherically Symmetric Solutions
15:00-14:20 – talk 9 – Bahman Karimi – SPACE – Investigation of Image Errors in VLBI Images of SN 1993J
15:20-15:40 – talk 10 – Neda Hejazi – SPACE – New Photometric Calibrations for Determination of Fundamental Properties of M stars, Galactic Chemical Evolution and Structure
10 min deliberation by judges
16:00 – announce winner of Ralph Nicholls award.
Brown Bag Lunches with Colloquium Speaker
The colloquium organizer this year, Dr. Matt Johnson (research website), is hosting brown bag lunches for colloquium speakers on Mondays at 12:30pm in PSE 258. A small amount of snacks will be provided, but you should bring your own lunch. This is a great opportunity for informal discussion with various researchers and a good chance to get out of the lab/away from your desk for lunch. You can consult the physics website for the colloquium schedule. If you have any questions, email Matt directly.
PAGE Conference Official Name
Historically, the PAGE Conference has been called the ‘Monkey Conference,’ and has always been named in honour of some sort of monkey (see the conference history here). The PAGE exec has gotten together and decided that this year’s conference will be named in honour of the smallest monkey on the planet: the Pygmy Marmoset.
Pygmy Marmoset
‘It is notable for being the smallest monkey in the world at just over 100 grams (3.5 oz). It is generally found in evergreen andriver edge forests and is a gum-feeding specialist.’ –wikipedia
‘High in the rain forest canopy of South America lives a tiny animal that dodges behind tree trunks and branches, alternately freezing and dashing, just like a squirrel. It also has brown fur and a long tail like a squirrel—but it’s really a pygmy marmoset, the world’s smallest monkey! Marmosets and their cousins, the tamarins, are some of the tiniest primates around, but pygmy marmosets are different enough to be classified apart from other marmoset species.’ –San Diego Zoo
The Physics and Astronomy Executive will be making a monetary donation on behalf of the graduate students to the World Wildlife Fund and it’s Pygmy Marmoset efforts.