Keynote Speakers

Remote sensing for air quality and climate change applications: Aeolian (wind-blown) mineral dust in the Canadian Arctic

Aldona Wiacek, Saint Mary's University

Abstract: Mineral dust is the most abundant suspended particle (aerosol) in the atmosphere, with significant effects on air quality, weather and climate.  As the Arctic cryosphere shrinks, more mineral dust deposits are exposed and the concentration of aeolian (wind-blown) dust in the atmosphere increases, with increased concomitant effects.  This talk will review why research on Arctic mineral dust is important, how remote sensing techniques (i.e., physics) are used to measure it, and what the key results and impacts on climate are.

Bio: Dr. Aldona Wiacek (she/her) is an atmospheric physicist who is cross appointed in the Departments of Environmental Science and Astronomy & Physics at Saint Mary’s University (SMU) in Halifax. She has 20 years of experience in remote sensing of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols (solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere) involved in air quality and climate change, as well as in aerosol-cloud-climate interactions. Her research includes the development of ground- and satellite-based remote sensing instrumentation and data analysis techniques.

Nature’s steel: collagen mechanics at the nanoscale

Laurent Kreplak, Dalhousie University

Abstract: The word collagen typically evokes protein supplements, skincare products or Jello. Yet in your body collagen is responsible for the strength, extensibility and toughness of all our connective tissues. I will show you how we can take a single collagen fibril, Nature’s nanoscale steel rope, and stretch it or compress it to reveal the origin of collagen’s toughness. I will also show you how we can use physical processes to turn a solution of collagen and polymer into “candy floss” as strong as a tendon.

Short Bio: Dr. Laurent Kreplak is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax. His research is a combination of soft matter physics and biophysics. He received a PhD in biophysics from Universite Paris Sud (2001) for work on the structure and mechanical properties of keratin filaments in Hair using X-ray scattering techniques. He was awarded a fellowship from the Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale (France) to pursue his post-doctoral studies at the Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland, where he used atomic force microscopy techniques to reveal the extreme extensibility of keratin filaments and other similar fibrous proteins in our body. He joined Dalhousie University in 2007 where he continues to explore the structure and mechanical properties of fibrous proteins as well as methods to produce high-performance protein fibres for tissue engineering applications.

Are gravitational solitons as interesting as black holes?

Turkuler Durgut, Mount Allison University

Abstract: The theory of General Relativity is our mathematical framework to describe gravity. Recent experiments, e.g., the detection of gravitational waves, have verified many of its striking predictions, such as the existence of black holes. A black hole is characterized by its event horizon, a boundary from which nothing can escape. However, Einstein's Field Equations also admit a class of solutions that behave much like black holes but do not have event horizons or singularities. In this talk, I will introduce these solutions, called "gravitational solitons," and explain why they are interesting to physicists and mathematicians.

Short Bio: Dr. Turkuler Durgut (she/her) is an assistant professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. She obtained her Ph.D. from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is interested in solving wave equations for rotating, non-charged black holes in arbitrary dimensions to understand the matter behaviour around the event horizon and to analyze the stability of black holes. Her current research is analyzing gravitational solitons, a family of non-trivial solutions to the Einstein Field Equations in negatively curved spacetimes. She also tries to implement equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) components to her teaching and research.

Why Everyone Should Have a Synchrotron Light Source

Michael Steinitz, Emeritus Professor of Physics, St. Francis Xavier University

Abstract: We'll discuss why synchrotron sources of x-rays are important for physicists, biologists, archaeologists and others. You may be alive today because of vaccines based on MRNA, a molecule similar to DNA. In the 1950's Rosalind Franklin took x-ray data for 3 years to find the structure of DNA. Today that data could be taken in 15 minutes at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) in Saskatchewan. There's one in Canada, eight in the USA, and twenty in Europe. There are none in Africa and I will discuss our efforts to build an African Light Source (AfLS). https://www.africanlightsource.org/ My involvement has been in editing the proposal for the AfLS, growing out of my work on Commission 13 (Physics for Developing Countries) of IUPAP.

https://iupap.org/who-we-are/internal-organization/commissions/c13-physics-for-development/

The Conceptual Design Report for the AfLS is 340 pages long, showing the depth of interest.

Bio: Dr. Michael Steinitz is an emeritus professor of physics at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He has served as president of the Canadian Association of physicists and as adjunct professor at Dalhousie University. For three years he was chair of the board of directors of the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovation, CIPI, (an NSERC Network of Centers of Excellence headquartered at Laval University in Quebec City). He was editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Physics for 14 years and served on the board of the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering and on the oversight committee for neutron scattering at the Chalk River nuclear reactor.

Michael's research area was experimental Solid State Physics, particularly in magnetism and incommensurate structures using neutron scattering and dilatometry as tools. He received his Bachelor of Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1965 and his PhD in Materials Science from Northwestern University in 1970.

Michael is now serving on Commission 13 (Physics for Developing Countries) of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and has recently been involved in editing the proposal for an African Light Source (like Canada's CLS in Saskatchewan). See https://www.africanlightsource.org/1

He has also run the concert series at StFX for fifty years and was a founder of Debut Atlantic and the Atlantic Presenters' Association.

The cell nucleus as active matter driven by DNA topology-relaxing enzyme activity

Maria Kilfoil, University of Prince Edward Island

Abstract: DNA topology-relaxing enzymes in the cell nucleus produce simplified topology, allowing entangled duplex DNA strands to pass one through another, essential for many critical cell nuclear processes including successful DNA segregation during cell division. We find that the aggregate, incoherent effect of the enzyme activity creates randomly fluctuating forces, which drive diffusive-like, non-thermal motion. I will show you how we can combine measurements of random motion with independent micro mechanical measurements to shed light on the connection between the enzyme's maintenance of the system away from thermodynamic equilibrium, and its simplification of topology over large length scales, so key to enhancing nuclear transport for many processes.

Bio: Dr. Maria Kilfoil is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Prince Edward Island. She obtained her B.Sc. in Physics from the University of New Brunswick and her PhD in Physics from Memorial University. She was awarded a NSERC fellowship (Canada) to pursue her post-doctoral studies at Harvard University, where she used confocal microscopy and rheological techniques to reveal the structure and dynamical properties of colloid-polymer glasses and gels, and the polymeric materials of the cell. She returned to the Atlantic region and joined University of Prince Edward Island in 2021 where she continues to explore the cell's polymeric materials as an active, out of equilibrium form of matter. She also tries to implement equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) components to her teaching and research.

Maria serves as Chair of the Division of Physics in Medicine and Biology of the Canadian Association of Physics, and on the editorial board of Physics in Canada.