UPEI alumnus successfully defends PhD thesis at Caltech
UPEI alumnus, Evan O'Connor, successfully defended his PhD thesis on core-collapse supernovae-black-hole formation-at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. Under the supervision of Caltech's Dr. Christian Ott, O'Connor developed a computational code to simulate core-collapse supernovae and explored which stars are more likely to create black holes.
O'Connor is a native of Souris, PEI, and a former UPEI student who graduated in 2007. During his time at the University, he completed his Honours Physics Co-operative Education degree, holding some exciting work placements including terms at the Herzberg Institute, and the TRIUMF Lab, a world-class subatomic physics research laboratory in Vancouver, BC.
When asked what his time at Caltech was like, O'Connor mentioned the differences he saw between graduate students who attended larger universities with extensive programs during their undergraduate degrees, versus students, like him, who came from a smaller university.
'I feel that UPEI's core physics program prepared me well for the challenge of graduate physics,' said O'Connor. 'UPEI helped me discover what I wanted to do for post-graduate studies. The personal attention from the faculty and staff at UPEI assisted me in determining my post-graduate course of study, and that's something that wouldn't have happened if I had attended a larger university for my undergraduate degree.'
Dr. Sheldon Opps, associate professor and chair of UPEI's Physics department, supervised O'Connor's honours research thesis, and said he did a fantastic job during his time at UPEI. Opps and O'Connor studied Langmuir monolayers, with special interest in collapse phenomena, which has relevance on lung function and can play a vital role in infant respiratory distress syndrome. O'Connor continued working voluntarily on the Langmuir monolayer project while engaged in graduate research at Caltech.
'Evan has made substantial contributions in the area of theoretical astrophysics, and his research has provided us with a better understanding of core collapse and black hole formation,' said Opps. 'I expect great things from Evan over the coming years, and anticipate that he will be a leader in this field of research.'
'By performing research during the summer in the UPEI Physics department, I gained valuable computational experience,' said O'Connor. 'Through the cooperative education stream, I was able to learn more about areas of physics that I was interested in.'
This fall, O'Connor will continue his studies on core-collapse supernovae through a post-doctoral degree at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto.
UPEI congratulates Evan on his recent achievement!
