Hamilton Amateur Astronomers
Maintained by Rob Roy
Two NASA Hubble Fellowships Awarded to McMaster Astrophysicists
Two of the dozen prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowships for postdoctoral work in astrophysics have been awarded to Dr. Patrick Cote and Dean McLaughlin, both graduates of the Astrophysics programme in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster. These fellowships "for highly qualified, recent postdoctoral scientists to conduct independent research that is broadly related to the mission of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)" are widely recognized to be the best such positions available and it is rare for two to be awarded to graduates of the same institution in the same year.
Dr. Patrick Cote is currently a National Research Council Research Associate at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, BC. He obtained his Ph.D. from McMaster in 1995 where he was supervised by Dr. Douglas Welch. His Ph.D. work was an observational study of star cluster and field star dynamics with special emphasis on new marginally-bound stellar systems. Since leaving McMaster, Dr. Cote has been Principal Investigator on numerous research programmes involving the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the Keck Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. He will take his Hubble Fellowship at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington which is located in Pasadena, California and operates one of the three major observatory complexes in Chile.
Dean McLaughlin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. His doctoral work provides a new theoretical framework for describing the gravitational collapse of molecular and protostellar clouds. He expects to defend his thesis in early 1997 and will take his Hubble Fellowship at University of California, Berkeley. Mr. McLaughlin's Ph.D. research was supervised by Dr. Ralph Pudritz and his M.Sc. was supervised by Dr. William Harris - both members of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
In the seven years between 1990 and 1996, 86 Hubble Fellowships were awarded. This year's set of awards brings the total number of Hubble Fellowships awarded to graduates of Canadian Ph.D. programmes to four - and three of these obtained their Ph.D.'s from McMaster. Dr. Phil Fischer, received a Hubble Fellowship in the 1995 competition - and was also the first graduate of the then recently approved Ph.D. programme in Astrophysics at McMaster. He is currently at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
"Obviously, we are thrilled! Pat Cote and Dean McLaughlin are both first-rate and it is very rewarding to see that recognized internationally," remarks Doug Welch, Associate Professor.
Dr. Cote and Mr. McLaughlin were at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Toronto when the results of this year's competition were announced.
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