Kingston - Queen’s Mathematics and Statistics professor David Thomson is among nine outstanding Canadian scientists and scholars to be named a new Killam Research Fellow for 2009.

The fellowship, valued at $140,000, is among Canada’s most distinguished research awards.

Canada Research Chair in Statistics and Signal Processing, Dr. Thomson has focused his work at Queen’s on climate analysis, global warming, and space physics. His goal during the two-year fellowship will be to identify solar gravity or "g-modes” using space physics data. These obscure solar modes are important for both scientific and practical reasons, he notes.

Identifying the modes and precisely determining their frequencies is the only known way to determine conditions in the Sun’s core. “Until we know this, our ability to predict climate is greatly limited,” says Dr. Thomson. “Thus, characterizing g-modes is becoming increasingly vital.” He and his students will attempt to identify the modes with new data analysis tools that they have developed using the different orbits of the ACE and Ulysses spacecraft.

Administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, Killam Research Fellowships allow Canada’s best scientists and scholars to devote two years to full-time research. Recipients are chosen by the Killam Selection Committee, which comprises 15 eminent scientists and scholars representing a broad range of disciplines. Queen’s has received a total of 45 Fellowships since the program’s inception in 1968.