In 2015 we were thrilled to award the Canada Council Killam Prize in Natural Sciences to Dr. Victoria Kaspi for her work on Neutron stars, the first woman to win a Killam Prize in this category. Worth $100,000 the Canada Council Killam Prize Killam Prizes recognize Canadian scholars who have made a substantial and distinguished contribution, over a significant period, to scholarly research. Dr. Kaspi didn’t stop there!
In 2016 Dr. Kaspi went on to win the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. Awarded annually for both the sustained excellence and overall influence of research work conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering, this award is valued at $1M over five years.
As one of the world’s leading experts on neutron stars, Dr. Kaspi uses some of the most powerful radio and x-ray telescopes in the world to study their physical behaviour. Her achievements include the confirmation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the discovery of the fastest rotating star and through the discovery of powerful x-ray busts from an enigmatic class of star the number of known magnetars in our galaxy has now doubled.
Congratulations Dr. Kaspi!
Photo by MCpl Charbonneau