News and announcements

According to popular media, the search for alien life involves advanced technology, space exploration and sometimes even government conspiracies and secret programs. But according to University of Victoria (UVic) astronomer Jon Willis, author of "The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life", the search for alien life actually begins right in our own backyard.

University of Victoria (UVic) physicist Dominique Trischuk studies some of the tiniest pieces of the universe, particles so small they’re invisible to even the most powerful microscopes. But while her focus is on the minuscule, her questions, and the tools she’s using to answer them, are anything but small.

A team of researchers at the University of Victoria (UVic) have achieved a major breakthrough in electron microscopy that will allow scientists to visualize atomic-scale structures with unprecedented clarity using lower-cost and lower-energy microscopes than ever before.

Dr. Ruobing Dong has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in recognition of his pioneering research on exoplanets and planetary origins. This honour is one of the highest recognitions for early- to mid-career scholars in Canada.

The excavation of the colossal underground cavern that will house Hyper-Kamiokande, a next-generation neutrino detector in Japan was completed on July 31, 2025.

Congratulations to Akshara Viswanathan, who was 1 of 3 outstanding candidates to be awarded the Gruber Fellowship Award for 2025, an award which supports the research of early career researchers.

UVic researchers among Global CERN Teams Awarded 2025 Breakthrough Prize for Expanding Frontiers of Particle Physics.

Congratulations to Jess Speedie, who was announced today as one of the 8 outstanding post-doctoral scientists to be honoured the '51 Pegasi b Fellow Award' for 2025!

Dr. William Thompson of ARC & NRC-Herzberg was named as the recipient of the 2025 CASCA Plaskett Medal & NRC Plaskett Fellowship for the most outstanding doctoral thesis in astronomy or astrophysics.

Dr. Alan McConnachie of ARC & NRC-Herzberg was named as the recipient of the 2025 Peter G. Martin award for mid-career achievement.

Two esteemed professors from our Department of Physics and Astronomy, along with one of our graduate students, have been honored as 2024 REACH Award recipients: Dr. Arif Babul - David H. Turpin Gold Medal for Career Achievement in Research Dr. Kim Venn - Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision and Mentorship Maheyer Shroff -Andy Farquharson Teaching Excellence Award for Graduate Students

Mark Hartz and Dean Karlen receive a second round of CFI funding ($6.3M) for constructing and installing precision calibration systems in the Hyper-K particle detector under construction near Kamioka, Japan and to ensure the accuracy of the measurements performed by the Hyper-K instruments.

World Health Day, celebrated every year on April 7, is a global health awareness day that aims to raise awareness around various health issues. Here in the Faculty of Science, we’re working some of those issues every day. Our researchers are developing new therapeutics and treatments for diseases, uncovering the molecular mechanisms by which viruses and bacteria are operating, evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions, uncovering the physiology of diseases and much more. This World Health Day, explore some of the health-related research happening in our Faculty, across five of our six departments.

The Canadian Nuclear Physics for Astrophysics Network held its Annual Meeting 2024 this month at TRIUMF in Vancouver. The three-day meeting fostered international multidisciplinary collaboration, with the first day dedicated to student and postdoc research presentations, professional development, and community building.

UVic’s Rogério de Sousa, Irina Paci and Tao Lu have assembled a pan-Canadian all-star team of quantum experts. Eleven researchers from six universities and four industry partners have a plan to make quantum processing scalable and commercially viable.

Hosted by the University of Victoria and governed by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, Arbutus is Canada's largest academic research cloud computing site, uniquely dedicated to cloud resources, allowing researchers nationwide to process, share, and store data.

“We have, for the first time, found definitive evidence that the gravitational instability pathway can happen.” – Jessica Speedie (UVic Graduate Student)

A team of Astronomy Research Centre researchers, led by University of Victoria PhD candidate Dori Blakely, have used the James Webb Space Telescope to capture an unprecedented look at planet formation.

Dr. Alan McConnachie of ARC & NRC-Herzberg was named as the recipient of the 2025 Peter G. Martin award for mid-career achievement.

Dr. William Thompson of ARC & NRC-Herzberg was named as the recipient of the 2025 CASCA Plaskett Medal & NRC Plaskett Fellowship for the most outstanding doctoral thesis in astronomy or astrophysics.

Congratulations to Jess Speedie, who was announced today as one of the 8 outstanding post-doctoral scientists to be honoured the '51 Pegasi b Fellow Award' for 2025!

UVic researchers among Global CERN Teams Awarded 2025 Breakthrough Prize for Expanding Frontiers of Particle Physics.

Congratulations to Akshara Viswanathan, who was 1 of 3 outstanding candidates to be awarded the Gruber Fellowship Award for 2025, an award which supports the research of early career researchers.

The excavation of the colossal underground cavern that will house Hyper-Kamiokande, a next-generation neutrino detector in Japan was completed on July 31, 2025.

Dr. Ruobing Dong has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in recognition of his pioneering research on exoplanets and planetary origins. This honour is one of the highest recognitions for early- to mid-career scholars in Canada.

A team of researchers at the University of Victoria (UVic) have achieved a major breakthrough in electron microscopy that will allow scientists to visualize atomic-scale structures with unprecedented clarity using lower-cost and lower-energy microscopes than ever before.

University of Victoria (UVic) physicist Dominique Trischuk studies some of the tiniest pieces of the universe, particles so small they’re invisible to even the most powerful microscopes. But while her focus is on the minuscule, her questions, and the tools she’s using to answer them, are anything but small.

According to popular media, the search for alien life involves advanced technology, space exploration and sometimes even government conspiracies and secret programs. But according to University of Victoria (UVic) astronomer Jon Willis, author of "The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life", the search for alien life actually begins right in our own backyard.

A team of Astronomy Research Centre researchers, led by University of Victoria PhD candidate Dori Blakely, have used the James Webb Space Telescope to capture an unprecedented look at planet formation.

“We have, for the first time, found definitive evidence that the gravitational instability pathway can happen.” – Jessica Speedie (UVic Graduate Student)

UVic’s Rogério de Sousa, Irina Paci and Tao Lu have assembled a pan-Canadian all-star team of quantum experts. Eleven researchers from six universities and four industry partners have a plan to make quantum processing scalable and commercially viable.

Hosted by the University of Victoria and governed by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, Arbutus is Canada's largest academic research cloud computing site, uniquely dedicated to cloud resources, allowing researchers nationwide to process, share, and store data.

The Canadian Nuclear Physics for Astrophysics Network held its Annual Meeting 2024 this month at TRIUMF in Vancouver. The three-day meeting fostered international multidisciplinary collaboration, with the first day dedicated to student and postdoc research presentations, professional development, and community building.

World Health Day, celebrated every year on April 7, is a global health awareness day that aims to raise awareness around various health issues. Here in the Faculty of Science, we’re working some of those issues every day. Our researchers are developing new therapeutics and treatments for diseases, uncovering the molecular mechanisms by which viruses and bacteria are operating, evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions, uncovering the physiology of diseases and much more. This World Health Day, explore some of the health-related research happening in our Faculty, across five of our six departments.

Mark Hartz and Dean Karlen receive a second round of CFI funding ($6.3M) for constructing and installing precision calibration systems in the Hyper-K particle detector under construction near Kamioka, Japan and to ensure the accuracy of the measurements performed by the Hyper-K instruments.