Daymond Ling Award in Physics

Awards totalling $2,000 have been made available through an endowment established by Daymond Ling (B.Sc. 1976, M.Sc. (Bus Admin) 1978) for third or fourth-year students in the B.Sc. Major, Honours, Combined Major or Combined Honours in Physics or Combined Honours in Biophysics programs who are in good academic standing and have excelled in science communication by demonstrating the ability to communicate the ideas and implications of physics to a wide audience. Daymond has worked for over forty years as a data scientist in financial services, and is regarded as an industry leader. After graduating from UBC, he joined American Express’s fraud investigation team, where he was a recipient of a Chairman’s Award of Excellence for Innovation. Daymond then joined CIBC in 1996 to assist its customer relationship management team, and was awarded the company’s Achievers Award for Innovation twenty times for his contributions in analytics. After 20 years at CIBC, he joined Questrade Financial Group in 2019 as Head of Analytics. Daymond serves as an analytics advisory board member, mentor and is regularly invited to speak at conferences. The awards are made on the recommendation of the Department of Physics & Astronomy. (First award available for the 2021/2022 winter session).

Ryan Curtis was about to start an 8-month co-op placement at TRIUMF when he learned that he had been selected to receive the inaugural Daymond Ling Award in Physics. When he returns to campus in January 2023 to complete his degree, he’ll do so with the added motivation that his love of educational communication has been recognized.

“I love research, which I’ve found through co-op,” says Ryan, who co-presents educational physics videos on Tik Tok, “but I also love physics/science communications and being able to educate people.” He really appreciated receiving the award as it gave him a sense of validation for the work he has been doing to share his scientific knowledge with others, following in the footsteps of those who inspired him to study physics, such as Professors Brian Cox and Brian Greene.

Once he has BSc (Hons Physics) in hand, Ryan intends to pursue a Masters and then a PhD in Physics. At this point he is leaning towards astro-particle research for his graduate studies as he’s interested dark matter and neutrino detection. And after that? Ryan’s current career goal is to become a physics professor. “I think a prof gets the best of both worlds,” he says. “You get to do your research and you get to teach classes as well, and then there’s also a lot of freedom to do other things.”

Yuka’s path to a BSc began as a Physics/Astronomy major, but she has since gravitated towards computer science. She came late to the game, she says – her first experience of it was in first year at PHAS. But now she’s loving exploring comp sci, and credits Physics with providing an excellent foundation. “Your code doesn’t have a place to go unless you know how it works physically. I took an electronics lab and built a rhythm transcriber with a micro-processor. That was super-rewarding for me,” says Yuka.

Yuka loves sharing knowledge and breaking things down. “With physics, at the end of the day,” she says, “You’re describing how things work. It could be in everyday life or it could be out in the universe, but it’s intuitive to understand. I love breaking complex things down into a more understandable format.” 

Yuka was happy to learn that there was a new award in Physics to recognize the value of physics communication and outreach and inspired that it has been created by an alumnus giving back to today’s students. “I felt very encouraged when I found out that I was receiving this award, and grateful. It’s an honour,” she says.

Next for Yuka? Maybe a software-related job … or perhaps she’ll explore another passion: music. She plays percussion so physics comes into play, again. “It was crazy to me as a high schooler to realize that you need to know physics to be a better musician. You need to know where on the bar to hit so it vibrates the most so the standing waves match and everything,” says Yuka. “With physics, it all comes together.”

In his penultimate year of high school, Max Botsis decided to take a leap (away from his Fine Arts leaning) and register for an integrated Physics and Chemistry class. He came away from that course with a passion for learning about how the universe and the things within it work, for which he credits the science teacher who mentored and inspired him. 

That year was a turning point: Max decided that to pursue both Physics and Chemistry in university, which he has.

“Because of my experience with that teacher in high school, I found myself with the burning desire to help others learn science as I was given the chance to,” says Max. “Since then, I have tried my best to seek out every way I can help others find passion within Physics to hopefully inspire someone as I was. This came in the form of volunteer tutoring, working with the Undergraduate Physics Society, volunteering at the Physics department’s outreach events for kids and teens, and other smaller projects on my own time. I was similarly involved in the Chemistry department as well!” Through this outreach, Max found that he really enjoyed teaching Physics and telling stories about physics concepts – enhancing traditional education by integrating a more informal approach to the core subject.

Max has since steered away from STEM – in the short-term – to work towards a Masters in Management at UBC. He hopes the combination business knowledge and science skills will lead to a career in the video game development industry.

Olivia Lowe

Jeremy Heyl, Head of Physics & Astronomy and Olivia Lowe, 2024.

Since as early as the second grade, I remember being fascinated with the universe and the intricacies of how it works. During my elementary years I participated in after school science camps that involved hands-on experiments, and thus was born my everlasting curiosity and passion for all things physics. Having the opportunity to explore these concepts at such a young age helped me develop the confidence and skills necessary to pursue a science based course of study, even as a young woman. Through my contributions to the PHAS Outreach department, I hoped to ignite the same curiosity in younger generations, as was done for me. Getting started in the physics field can be extremely intimidating, but my goal is to show people that it is not as scary as most make it out to be.

I started my post-secondary journey with the intention of finding a career in astronomy, but as I was led deeper into the world of physics I was introduced to new topics such as biophysics, chemical physics, energy systems, and so many more, which caused me to reassess my career choices. I then realized that some of the most effective solutions to modern day problems are extremely interdisciplinary, and I made the choice to expand my studies beyond astronomy by branching out into biology and chemistry in my last year. This was one of the best decisions I made over the course of my education, as it allowed me to view problems from new perspectives, and develop a new understanding of the scientific process. Having multiple perspectives of a problem not only helps us understand it better, but also allows us to convey the same information in different ways, and to me that is the most important aspect of science communication. By branching out to new fields I was able to improve the way I communicated to a wide variety of audiences, and make information more digestible. At its root, science communication is about more than just divulging information - it's about uniting the scientific community to empower each other so that we can grow and move forward together. 

Myles Osenton

It is of no doubt that physics is a fascinating and impactful field, however my first years in university were anything but physics. I was a synthetic biologist through and through, using genetic engineering to solve problems using proteins and amino acids. Over the last few years, my interests and areas of research have slowly shifted, from cancer immunology and biotechnology to analytical chemistry, astrochemistry to lasers and optics. Perhaps the most significant reason for this glacial relocation towards physics, naturally aside from the fascinating subject matter, has been the people in PHAS - instructors, staff and perhaps most significantly, students - who have made the transition seamless and the physics engaging. My contributions to science communication in this department have aimed to ensure equal access to science and to tear down boundaries in pursuing physics; yet fundamentally and most importantly, I have sought to support other students in the same way I was supported when I joined physics. It has been a pleasure contributing to the UBC PHAS community and beyond.

Aryan Tiwari

Hi, I’m Aryan! I just recently graduated with my BSc in Physics and Math (combined) at UBC, and am now a graduate physics student pursuing condensed matter theory at the University of Illinois (UIUC)!

Over the 2024-2025 academic year, I was a 5th year student and served as one of Physics Society (Physsoc) co-presidents. Working with Physsoc, alongside volunteering in the Undergraduate Science Slam, Annual Physics Olympics, organizing CUPC 2024 and more, led to my appreciation of the impact outreach and science communication can have on people; not just our science university cohorts, but the general public as well.

You might wonder: Is science communication that important? My answer, broadly, is that communication is generally a vital and undervalued skill; it enables the transmission of our complicated ideas and thoughts to family, friends, peers, mentors & mentees, work related stakeholders and even the general public. Even the media we consume for entertainment involves practicing communication in some form! It’s no surprise, then, that science communication inherits this importance.  

On a personal level, I think science communication is rather enjoyable. It allowed me to participate in a variety of social activities and get to know students in my cohort I may not have interacted with otherwise. In fact, I met many of my friends at UBC through these science communication activities. Outreach, in particular, felt quite fulfilling, as sharing why and what about certain aspects in physics are interesting reminded me of myself learning them for the first time. I didn't have a lot of the outreach opportunities offered here when I was in high school, so it felt rather satisfying to be able to possibly contribute to someone deciding to pursue physics in the future in some capacity!

In the absence of personal meaning, I still believe practicing science communication is vital from a productivity standpoint. My understanding, especially conceptual, improved significantly when communicating with others; they often had perspectives and viewpoints I wouldn’t have considered, or taken ages to arrive at myself. With outreach, it is more important, now than ever, to increase the influx of unique perspectives and ideologies, as science continues to advance and further progress is sought. This can’t happen without others appreciating the importance of and beauty in science in the first place!

At UBC, especially in the PHAS department, there are a plethora of opportunities (some mentioned above) that can allow you to practice science communication. I hope I was able to convince you to at least try one of them yourself! I am truly thankful to UBC, and the PHAS department, for all the opportunities they provided me with, and I hope to continue pursuing physics and improve my science communication skills in the years to come!

Jenny Zhu

Physics always seemed like an extremely difficult subject only for “smart” people for me as a kid. My first year physics professor explained complex topics with clear language and demos, so things shifted and I decided to pursue physics. In my first research job, the postdoc explained things in simple language with minimal jargon that someone like me with only first year knowledge could understand. This experience was very unique and special to me and inspired me to start looking at science communication, making science accessible to people outside of academia. 

Throughout my undergraduate career, I've participated in different activities in presenting science to younger generations and TA'd courses that challenged me to work on explaining concepts in simple languages. These activities kept me grounded and the interactions with the audience motivated me to keep going. I hope to keep engaging in science communication activities, hoping to empower and inspire more people to pursue physics.