Graduate

Two researchers working with adaptive optics components — PhD student Masen Lamb, left, and Dr. Kim Venn working with adaptive optics components at NRC Herzberg in Saanich. Photo: UVic Photo Services.

Our department offers the following MSc and PhD graduate programs:

Questions?

Please visit our frequently asked questions page.

Graduate Resources

Further program information is available below:

Graduate Research Opportunities

Our department has 25 faculty members and emphasizes excellence in a small number of specialties. The department benefits greatly from its proximity to a number of outstanding government laboratories where many adjunct faculty are also involved in our graduate programs: , , , , , .

The graduate program in Physics and Astronomy is structured so that students are fully engaged in research by the end of their first year of courses. Financial aid is available in the form of scholarships, teaching assistantships and grant-funded research assistantships.

Why UVic?

Our faculty members have won prestigious Killam, Steacie, Leverhulme, Reinhardt, Guggenheim and Sloan Foundation Fellowships. The department also currently hosts 1 CRC Chair and a CIfAR scholar. Other major prizes include the Annie Jump Cannon award (American Astronomical Society), PECASE and CAREER awards (National Science Foundation). The Faculty of Science Excellence in Research award has been awarded to our professors 6 times in the last 10 years.

The 番茄社区 is the second largest NSERC astronomy grantee in Canada worth over half a million dollars annually. Individual large CFI grants totalling a further half a million dollars have been used to develop an astronomical instrumentation laboratory and high performance computing cluster.

Meet some of our graduates

Our graduate students are very successful in securing faculty positions in Physics and/or Astronomy. Graduate students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy have also been awarded numerous provincial and national awards, including regular receipt of NSERC doctoral awards. Some recent special prizes include:

(PhD 2016) [recipient of the 2017/18 CAP PPD Thesis Award for best Canadian PhD thesis in particle physics], Postdoctoral Fellow, IBS Daejon
(PhD 2014) [recipient of the 2014 Plaskett medal awarded by CASCA for best Canadian PhD thesis and the 2014 Governor General's gold medal], Software Developer, , Vancouver
(PhD 2010) [recipient of the 2010 Plaskett medal awarded by CASCA for best Canadian PhD thesis], Research Officer,
(PhD 2007) [recipient of the 2007 Governor General's gold medal], Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) Project Scientist with at Swinburne University, Australia
Brigitte Vachon (PhD 2004) [recipient of the 2004 Governor General's gold medal], Associate Professor, McGill University
(PhD 1999) [recipient of the 1999 Governor General's gold medal], Research Scientist, Institute of Particle Physics (IPP) and Associate Professor, McGill University

Below are some examples of our graduate almuni:

Trystyn Berg (PhD 2018), Fellow, Chile
(PhD 2018), Postdoctoral Research Scholar,
(PhD 2018) Postdoctoral Fellow at Weill Cornell Medical College
(PhD 2017), Postdoctoral Fellow, Queen Mary University of London
(PhD 2017), Data Scientist, Scotia Bank
(PhD 2017), Postdoctoral Fellow, Durham University, UK
(PhD 2017), Postdoctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia
(PhD 2017), Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University
(PhD 2017), Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arizona, Tucson
(PhD 2017), Postdoctoral Fellow, Groningen University, Netherlands
(PhD 2016), Postdoctoral Fellow, , Hamburg
(PhD 2016), Postdoctoral Fellow, IBS Daejon
Mara Johnson-Groh (MSc 2016), NASA Science Writer,
Paul Kovacs (MSc 2016), Programmer Analyst, Civil Engineering Department, UVic
(PhD 2016), Postdoctoral Fellow,
James Pearce (PhD 2015), Data Scientist, Amazon 9
(PhD 2014), Actuarial Analyst,
(PhD 2014), Faculty,
(PhD 2013), Scientist Cloud Developer, UVic HEP group
(PhD 2013), Assistant Clinical Professor,
(PhD 2012), Postdoctoral Fellow,
(PhD 2012), Risk Manager, , Toronto
(PhD 2012), Medical Physicist at BC Cancer Agency, Prince George
Michael Palmer (MSc 2012), Predictive Analytics Researcher,
(PhD 2011), Clinical Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto
(PhD 2010), Senior Data Scientist, Booking.com, Amsterdam
(PhD 2009), Faculty member, Stanford School of Medicine
(PhD 2009), Senior Researcher, (ICRAR)
(MSc 2009), Scientific Engineer,
Brian York (MSc 2008), Research Analyst,
(MSc 2007), Lead Data Scientist, , Ottawa
(MSc 2007), Process Engineer,
Jon Geehan (MSc 2005), High School teacher, Victoria High, Greater Victoria School District
(PhD 2005), Senior Lecturer, at Liverpool John Moores University
(PhD 2005), Reader at the at Liverpool John Moores University, UK
(PhD 2004), Software Engineer, Google
(PhD 2004), Associate Professor, University of Adelaide
(PhD 2002), Associate Professor, McGill University and Senior Fellow (CIfAR). Dr Dobbs was awarded the Canadian Association of Physicists Herzberg Medal in 2014
(PhD 2002), Associate Professor, University of Waterloo
(PhD 2001), Associate Professor, Carleton University
(PhD 2000), Professor, Simon Fraser University (Currently SFU's Associate Vice-President, Research)
(PhD 1999), past PPARC Fellow, Professor, Associate Chair University of Waterloo.
(PhD 1999), Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Trent University
(MSc 1996), Sloan Fellow, CIFAR scholar and Professor at Princeton
(PhD 1996), Director,
(PhD 1996), Professor, Carleton University, FRSC
(PhD 1990), previous Director of the Department of Astronomy and now Director of Astro-Engineering, Universidad Catolica in Santiago, Chile
Stephen Holland (BSc 1989), Research scientist, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Centre
(MSc 1978), Professor, Queens' University and author of the successful textbook "Astrophysics - Decoding the Cosmos"