Researchers
Alexey is a Research Associate in Prof. James Drummond's group at Dalhousie University. He completed his B.Sc in Radiophysics (2001) and M.Sc. in Laser Physics (2003) at Tomsk State University, Russia. He earned his Ph.D. in Optics (2006) from V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Russia. His area of expertise is atmospheric optics, spectroscopy, high vacuum systems and electronics. He has extensive experience in conducting field research in polar latitudes. Alexey has joined CANDAC in 2009. Currently, he is responsible for the Stratospheric Ozone Lidar, which monitors the condition of the ozone layer above Eureka. He is also interested in studying near the ground temporal and spatial temperature variations using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for characterization of heat fluxes in High Arctic.
Alexey is a co-founder of the Eureka Amateur Radio Club (VY0ERC). He likes to get on the air from PEARL when time permits.
Email: alexey.tikhomirov@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-3313
Dalhousie University
http://fizz.phys.dal.ca/~atikhomirov/
My name is Shannon Hicks and I am a Master's Student at The University of Western Ontario under the supervision of Dr. Bob Sica. My research primarily involves developing and implementing a new alignment procedure for the Purple Crow Lidar, which is located here at Western. In addition to atmospheres and the arctic, I am also interested in astronomy and planetary science. When I'm not doing research or classes I enjoy reading, traveling, hiking, and playing video games.
Email: shicks26@uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario
Liviu has an undergraduate background in physics from Bucharest University (Romania), followed by a license in “optics, spectroscopy, plasma and lasers”. He later worked for an automation company in Bucharest. Afterwards he pursued graduate studies in instrumentation for astronomy, particularly adaptive optics, at the Université de Montréal. This granted him an engineering position in adaptive optics at the European Southern Observatory in Munich, Germany. Such instrumentation was meant for correcting in real-time the effects of the atmospheric turbulence in the astronomical images. This work led him towards identifying the best sites in terms of turbulence and transparent skies for astronomical purpose, or what is called “astronomical site testing”. In this sense he participated in the pioneering site testing work for the Canadian Arctic with a team from several Canadian Universities. Also he was involved in identifying the future location of the Caltech Thirty Meter Telescope, working with a team in South Africa. To deepen and formalize his atmospheric expertise, he pursued graduate studies in atmospheric science at UQAM in Montreal. As this research led him to work in the Arctic (at the Eureka Weather station) with a new atmospheric remote sensing instrument (a star-photometer), he’s currently pursuing a PhD program in remote sensing at the Université de Sherbrooke.
Email: Liviu.Ivanescu@usherbrooke.ca
Phone: 514-779-2708
Université de Sherbrooke
During the summer of 2014 I was involved in a research project with Prof. Norm O'Neill at Universite de Sherbrooke through the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Arctic Atmospheric Science. My research project focused on the identification of brown carbon (BrC) aerosols through sun photometry; in particular, I completed an analysis of parameters sensitive to the presence of BrC such as the absorption aerosol optical depth, the fine-mode-aerosol absorption derivative, and the fine-mode-aerosol absorption 2nd derivative through AEROCAN / AERONET inversion data at stations in the high Arctic, urban, and forest regions for the measuring period from 2009 - 2013.
Email: ghk35@cornell.edu
Phone: 920-285-5177
NSERC CREATE Training Program in Arctic Atmospheric Science
I'm a PhD student at UWO, and am working under the supervision of Dr Robert Sica.
I'm working with Lidars. I spent about one year on understudying photomultiplier tubes and their characteristics. I also am working on some parts of our data acquisition software. By taking advantage of OOP,I'm trying to make the software more user-friendly.
Email: ghazal.farhani@purplecrowlidar.ca
Phone: 226-236-7429
Master student in Physics. I am Working with Prof. Robert Sica in Western University. My project is based on Retrieving Water vapour mixing ratios using the CANDAC Raman Lidar in Eureka.
Email: smahagam@uwo.ca
The University of Western Ontario
Emily is a PhD candidate in Astronomy with Specialization in Planetary Science at the University of Western Ontario, under the supervision of Prof. R. J. Sica. She is interested in the atmospheres of Earth and of other planetary bodies.
Currently, she uses the CANDAC RMR Lidar's green laser beam and polarization-sensitive detectors to study the properties of cold Arctic clouds, particularly during polar night. Through several extended stays (up to 2 months at a time) at the PEARL lab in Eureka, she has contributed to instrument development and testing on several instruments, as well as making and interpreting atmospheric measurements.
Emily also assists her home lab group at the Purple Crow Lidar near London, Ontario at Western's Environmental Science Field Station, where the focus is on higher altitude Stratospheric measurements.
Email: emccull2@uwo.ca
Phone: 519-661-2111 ext 86554
The University of Western Ontario
I am currently in the second year of my Master's program at Western. I work in Bob Sica's group. Our primary research tool is the Purple Crow Lidar, a powerful lidar capable of measurements up to the thermosphere.
My work focuses on characterizing our system to improve the accuracy of our water vapor measurements.
Email: jvankerk@uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario