Scholarships totaling $2,000 have been made available through an endowment established by the Stothard Family in memory of Bill Stothard (1898-1967) for graduate students specializing in Astronomy with outstanding academic and research achievements, with preference given to students who have demonstrated a commitment to astronomy outreach or public engagement. If, in any given year, there are no eligible graduate students then the award may be given to an undergraduate third or fourth-year B.Sc. student majoring in Astronomy. Bill had expressed early interest in astronomy even before emigrating from his Grassmoor, England birthplace at age seven. He grew up in Brandon, Manitoba where he became a skilled machinist and welder. He then travelled North America as a young man, eventually settling in Vancouver, where he worked in his trade until retirement. Astronomy was his avocation throughout his life, not only viewing the night skies but also constructing his own telescopes for this purpose. Bill’s family established this award to honour his memory and his lifelong interest in astronomy. These academic awards are made on the recommendation of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, Office of the Senate 2020-3-17 and in the case of a graduate student, in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. (the first award will be available for the 2021/2022 winter session).

Raelyn Sullivan is a PhD candidate studying claims of anomalous statistical behaviour of cosmic microwave background measurements under the supervision of Professor Douglas Scott.

Raelyn learned that she was this year’s recipient of the Bill Stothard Memorial Award in Astronomy just before leaving Vancouver to spend several months in Paris collaborating with scientists working on a future space telescope (called LiteBIRD and headed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency – JAXA) being designed to test for anomalies in the cosmic microwave background.

“My roots in astronomy come from being exposed to astronomy outreach at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory in Calgary when I was just barely 13 on a school trip, and then attending monthly open houses until I got to start my own time at the university. It was an incredible journey to go from watching astronomers giving talks at the observatory, to eventually being their student and then a fellow researcher working alongside them. Outreach is so important and I can credit where I am today to the roots I built attending all those public events in my youth. I hope I will be able to influence many young aspiring astronomers in my time as well.” -Raelyn Sullivan

Raelyn’s contributions to several different research projects have resulted in her being a co-author on 10 papers already, including being the lead on one of the last papers coming from the Planck Collaboration.

Maude Lariviere, Jeremy Heyl (PHAS Department professor and Head) and Alyssa Cassity, May 2024

Alyssa Cassity

I am a 2nd year Masters student working with Professor Ingrid Stairs. My research focuses on radio pulsars, the rapidly spinning relics left behind after the supernovae explosions of massive stars. They have an enormous dipolar magnetic field that accelerates particles, causing beams of radiation from each pole. As the pulsar spins, a beam of radiation sweeps across Earth like a lighthouse, causing a pulse of emission that we can detect with radio telescopes. I work with CHIME/Pulsar studying these cosmic lighthouses and conducting pulsar timing.

I had the idea early into my Master's degree to start an Astronomy on Tap chapter here in Vancouver, and recruited Maude to help bring astronomy to our community in a casual, accessible environment. Since then we've had a few highly successful events, and our chapter continues to grow as more graduate students and community members get involved. 
You can read more about Astronomy on Tap here: https://astronomyontap.org/
 

Maude Lariviere

My interest in astronomy and astrophysics started when I visited the Mont-Mégantic Observatory in southern Québec when I was 17 years old. Not only did it make me fall in love with the science itself, but it was also my first real contact with how important outreach can be. Since then, I’ve been doing science communication every chance I get; even returning to the observatory where it all started as an astronomy guide for 4 summers. So when Alyssa approached me regarding Astronomy on Tap Vancouver, I was very excited to help bring it to life!

I’m currently working on finishing my MSc here at UBC and TRIUMF, working under Nicole Vassh. I study the synthesis of the heaviest elements in the Universe and how it relates to the potential observables, with a focus on a process called the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). Basically, I use models of very small things (nuclei and their nuclear physics properties) and propagate that through astrophysical conditions to see how that shapes the abundance of elements in the Universe. I also work on understanding how we could detect the signatures of nucleosynthesis and what kind of signal we could hope to see in events such as neutron star mergers.