MPA Postdoc Claude Cournoyer-Cloutier awarded Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal

For her excellent graduate studies, Claude Cournoyer-Cloutier, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, received the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada at the end of November.

The prestigious award recognizes students for their outstanding scholastic achievements. In her graduate research, Cournoyer-Cloutier used numerical simulations to study the formation of massive, dense clusters of stars. During her PhD, she gave more than 100 shows for McMaster’s on-campus and portable planetariums. She was the graduate student representative on department meetings for several years, and on a faculty hiring committee in 2021-2022. In her role as head teaching assistant for two first-year physics courses, she implemented several new marking practices to make grading more equitable and transparent, and in the final year of her PhD, she started co-supervising student projects and is keen to continue doing so as MPA postdoc.

The Academic Medals were created in 1873 by Lord Dufferin, Canada’s third Governor General after Confederation, to encourage academic excellence across the nation. Over the years, they have become the most prestigious award that students in Canadian schools can receive. Today, the Governor General’s Academic Medals are awarded at four distinct levels: Bronze at the secondary school level; Collegiate Bronze at the post-secondary, diploma level; Silver at the undergraduate level; and Gold at the graduate level. Medals are presented on behalf of the Governor General by participating educational institutions, along with personalized certificates signed by the Governor General.