Departmental News and Events


Science Rendezvous - Saturday!

Event Date/Time: 
Sat, 05/12/2012 - 10:00am - 4:00pm
Event Location: 
Dundas Square, Toronto, Ontario

It's that time of year again! Science Rendezvous takes place this Saturday, May 12. In Toronto, you can find Physics showing off a few of our recent favourite demos at Dundas Square between 10 am and 4 pm.

It's going to be tonnes of fun, so bring the whole family and check it out.

We'll have some great electromagnetism equipment, vacuum jars, pendulums, and there may even be smoke rings and sonic flame tubes!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Thesis Defense Day!

April 26th was a big day in the Department of Physics, as 16 of our graduating class of undergrads defended their final thesis projects. The poster presentation event was a great way to wrap up the year, and the calibre of research on display was remarkable.

Congratulations to everyone for their excellent effort and accomplishment. Each student completed their research projects under the supervision of department faculty or faculty from participating local hospitals.

Special congratulations go to our poster competition award recipients:

  • Avery Raess - 1st Prize
  • Edna Sacay - 2nd Prize
  • Keith Poore - 3rd Prize
  • Farrah Hussein - Honourable Mention
  • Zahid Panchbhaya - Honourable Mention

We look forward to convocation!

MRI of the microcirculation in regeneration and disease

Seminar Date: 
Mon, 04/23/2012 - 2:00pm
Location: 
POD 358

Presenter: Dr. Margaret Cheng

Ultrasound radiation force: Advances in vibro-acoustography imaging, Bessel vortex beams, and metamaterial design

Seminar Date: 
Fri, 04/20/2012 - 1:30pm
Location: 
POD 358

Presenter: Dr. Farid Mitri

Abstract: Vibro-acoustography (VA) is a technique based on nonlinear acoustics phenomena in which two ultrasound beams driven at slightly different frequencies are focused in space, in which a signal is produced at the difference-frequency (DF) of the incident beams. The DF signal is used to produce an image of the object. Examples on the detection of object's resonances and identification of its associated vibrational modes with the finite element method are presented. Moreover, results for VA imaging applications in biomedicine will be presented and discussed.

Improving Mathematical Methods for Mapping of Brain Functions in High-Resolution fMRI

Seminar Date: 
Wed, 04/18/2012 - 1:30pm
Location: 
POD 358

Presenter: Dr.Dietmar Cordes

Abstract: A wide range of studies in functional MRI (fMRI) show increased capacity of multivariate methods to improve sensitivity of detecting brain activations in a noisy environment. A new method uses local canonical correlation analysis (CCA), to encompass a group of neighboring voxels instead of looking at the single voxel time course. The value of a suitable test statistic is used as a measure of activation. It is customary to assign this value to the center voxel of the local neighborhood; however, this is a choice of convenience and without constraints introduces artifacts, especially in regions of strong localized activation, leading to low specificity.

Ultrasound-Microbubbles Combined with Chemotherapy Enhanced Response of Ionizing Radiation in Prostate Cancer Cells

Seminar Date: 
Mon, 04/02/2012 - 12:00pm
Location: 
KHE 225, 340 Church Street

Presenter: Firas Almasri
Supervisor: Raffi Karshafian

The application of ultrasound and microbubbles (USMB) has been shown to enhance the therapeutic effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Ultrasonically-stimulated microbubbles at therapeutic conditions can increase the permeability of biological membranes and enhance the passage of therapeutic agents across blood vessels and cell membranes. Furthermore, chemotherapeutic agents such as docetaxel have been studied in combination with radiation as a radiosensitizer with favourable results. This work investigated the potential of USMB combined with chemotherapy to enhance the efficacy of ionizing radiation in prostate cancer cells.

Syndicate content