Undergraduate Student Accepted in Prestigious International Summer Training Program

Jaeden Bardati is a Physics Honours student with double minors in Mathematics and Computer Science, and is the co-founder and co-lead of Bishop’s Astronomy, Mathematics, & Physics Society (AMPS). For the summer 2022, Jaeden has been accepted into the very selective PSI START program at the prestigious Perimeter Institute.

The Perimeter Institute is a leading center for scientific research, training and educational outreach in foundational theoretical physics. Located in Ontario, its mission is to advance our understanding of the universe at the most fundamental level, stimulating the breakthroughs that could transform our future. Perimeter also trains the next generation of physicists through innovative programs.

For their international PSI START program (Perimeter Scholars International – Students’ Training Accelerator for Research in Theory), they invite 50 students to a part-time 10-week online school in theoretical physics. During this training, Jaeden will learn research tools and collaboration skills while immersed in the multi-disciplinary environment of the world’s largest independent theoretical physics research centre.

Jaeden was also one of ten students worldwide to be offered a paid internship at the Perimeter Institute next summer, a chance to be fully immersed in Perimeter’s renowned research environment and work on projects alongside Perimeter researchers. However, Jaeden decided to decline this internship offer to continue working with Dr. John Ruan of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Multi-Messenger Astrophysics.

Jaeden started doing research on supermassive black holes with Dr. Ruan during the summer of 2021, thanks to an Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). In his research, Jaeden is using cosmological simulations of galaxy formation to develop new approaches to identifying the host galaxy counterparts of supermassive black hole mergers detected in low-frequency gravitational waves.

This summer, thanks to a second NSERC USRA award, Jaeden, under the supervision of Dr. Ruan, will complete this project and plans to write his first scientific paper on the topic. He will also be provided the opportunity to present the results of this project at scientific meetings. I am very grateful and excited to be a part of these great opportunities. I look forward to learning more about theoretical topics in physics while continuing to be a part of Dr. Ruan’s amazing research team, says Jaeden. In the fall of 2023, after completing his undergraduate degree at Bishop’s University, Jaeden plans on attending graduate school in Physics. Due to Bishops’ great physics faculty and all the research opportunities that a smaller university brings, I am confident that my undergraduate degree is preparing me with the tools and knowledge to be successful in graduate school.