Bishop’s University hosted the Atlantic General Relativity Meeting 2021

As part of an effort to strengthen collaborations with researchers in the Atlantic Provinces, Bishop’s University virtually hosted the Atlantic General Relativity Meeting during May 25-29. The Atlantic General Relativity series of meetings has been an annual feature of the Atlantic general relativity community for nearly three decades and, relatively recently, it has developed to include more international participation. This series of meetings focusses on recent developments in all aspects of classical, quantum, and mathematical gravity and its goals include the dissemination of recent results, the circulation of ideas and methods, as well as the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Originally planned as an in-person event in 2020, the meeting was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. Naturally, going online has significantly increased the size of the conference. There were 131 participants from 22 countries and 77 organizations. Several Bishop’s students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, had the chance to attend the conference. Even with the virtual format, the traditional friendly atmosphere of the conference, where senior professors mingle with young researchers and students, was preserved.

The first two days of the 2021 meeting featured three advanced mini-courses by renowned speakers on tests of relativity with black hole imaging, gravitational waves, and multi-messenger astrophysics (Daryl Haggard), early universe cosmology (Matthew Johnson) and loop quantum cosmology (Edward Wilson-Ewing, a Bishop’s alumnus). The remaining three days consisted of talks, with a small poster session in parallel. There were plenty of talks by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and the organizers created a space for informal discussions, which would normally happen at question period, during coffee breaks, or after the regular sessions took place. Two competitions for the best graduate student and postdoctoral talks also took place during the conference.

When asked to comment on this conference, Dr. Valerio Faraoni of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, one of the organizers of the conference, had this to say: Hosting the 2021 Atlantic General Relativity Meeting at Bishop’s University helps strengthen our research, while gaining exposure, on the national and international level. We look forward to offering more special opportunities such as this one to our graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs. Bishop’s will soon be joining a collaboration between the Centre des Recherches Mathématique and the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences. Among others, this partnership will allow our students to attend conferences, workshops, and courses. Two Bishop’s undergraduates have already attended a four-week graduate summer school in Prince Edward Island.