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The Very Prestigious Vanier Scholarship is Awarded to Chloé-Aminata Gauvin-Ndiaye

Chloé-Aminata Gauvin-Ndiaye

Photo : IQ

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) program honours highly qualified doctoral students, and this time, Chloé-Aminata Gauvin-Ndiaye, doctoral candidate in physics at the Université de Sherbrooke, is among its recipients.

Three criteria guide the Vanier CGS in its selection: academic excellence, research potential, and leadership skills. The recipients will each receive $50,000 per year for three years to continue their research training.

A Remarkable University Career

As soon as she started her undergraduate degree in physics, Chloé stood out thanks to her academic excellence. She was first in her class and received an undergraduate research scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) twice, in addition to an admission scholarship from the Canada Research Chairs in condensed matter physics, and an excellence scholarship from the Fondation de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Chloé even received a mention of excellence during the convocation ceremony.

At the graduate level, her master’s thesis focused on new materials for magnetic refrigeration, with fundamental challenges and potential technological applications. This research could make current domestic refrigeration technologies more efficient in order to limit their environmental impact. In just 18 months, she completed her master’s degree with a great understanding of the methods of density functional theory (DFT), the Monte Carlo method in statistical physics, and the exploration of data in the field of materials, while having collaborated with a research professional and with a group of experimental physicists.

In addition, last year, Chloé took the initiative to develop a research project that received a grant from the Institut quantique as part of the annual call for projects. Offering automatic learning methods, the project allows undergraduate trainees to participate while collaborating with Mila researchers in artificial intelligence. This research on magnetic refrigeration aims to improve current domestic refrigeration technologies, and thus reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

“Chloé stood out in Sherbrooke as soon as she started her undergraduate studies. I count myself lucky that she agreed to do her graduate studies in my group. It often happens that after discussing issues with her, I later come up with ideas that I look forward to sharing with her. When I see her again, she not only had the same ideas independently, but she put them into practice and had other, even more fruitful ideas. It’s a real pleasure to work with Chloé. And Chloé’s social commitment has been remarkable on many levels for a very long time. She amply deserves this scholarship,” confirms Professor André-Marie Tremblay, professor of physics at the Université de Sherbrooke and Chloé’s current thesis director and former master’s director.

 About Chloé’s Doctoral Research

As part of her doctorate, Chloé is interested in the self-coherent two-particle method (SCTP), a project proposed in two aspects: “The first aspect is to include spin fluctuations in the DFT. To do this, we want to combine it with the SCTP, an approach developed by my supervisor, Professor André-Marie Tremblay. In order to take into account the experimental realities of theoretical and numerical methods. The second aspect of the research project is thus to include the effect of disorder in the self-coherent two-particle approach. In this way, we will be able to study systems more realistically, like highly critical electron-doped superconductors,” explains Chloé.

An Exceptional Leadership

The projects to which Chloé is dedicated to have always been successful. As soon as she joined the Department, she set herself the goal of making this male-dominated environment more welcoming to women and minorities. Guided by her feminist values and with the help of her colleagues, she created the Comité Diversité en Physique de l’Université de Sherbrooke (DiPhUS), a student committee whose objectives are to act on issues of diversity and inclusion in the Department of Physics.

She has also served on the student committee for the hiring of new teachers and on the departmental assembly, in addition to being a tutor at the help centre in physics, and an exercise assistant for four undergraduate courses.

Combining commitment and academic excellence does not leave much free time, and yet, Chloe finds time for writing, which is one of her hobbies. Chloé was one of the authors in the running for the second consecutive year for the Prix de la nouvelle Radio-Canada.

Congratulations, Chloé, and good luck with all your projects!

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