Successfully obtaining a Ph.D. is a rare academic achievement and one that deserves to be celebrated.
Huntsville native Connor Stone — a graduate of Pine Glen Public School and Huntsville High School and son of Huntsville City Councilman Bob Stone and Tracy Stone — received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Queen’s University on July 28, 2022.
Stone specializes in the study of galaxies, especially spiral galaxies, and the correlations between various aspects of such galaxies, including size, color, luminosity, and mass. His work focuses on “intrinsic statistical properties of galaxy populations,” as his website states, as well as “the physics of galaxy formation and evolution.”
The process of obtaining a Ph.D. is long and hard, with years of hard work, research and dedication. Stone is clearly no stranger to this journey; he completed a four-year undergraduate program earning a B.A. from the University of Waterloo and a two-year graduate program that earns an M.S. from Queen’s University before moving on to his four-year Ph.D. program.
While studying for his Ph.D., Stone created a code called “AutoProf,” which he began working on in 2020 and will release in the summer of 2021. The code analyzes pictures of galaxies to glean information about various characteristics of those galaxies and is able to extract information such as the total population, luminosity, size and color of a galaxy.
“There are many relationships that exist between these parameters,” says Stone. “You can imagine that a larger galaxy is also a brighter galaxy and a heavier galaxy, but there is some random variation around these relationships. Basically, I’ve been studying the scattered stuff around this, and what I’ve found is that people have previously underestimated this variety of galaxies; there is more variety than we previously expected.”
Stone’s code helped highlight this variety of galaxies and is used by many other researchers around the world in places like Australia, China and the United Kingdom.
During his Ph.D. Stone runs Queen’s University Observatory and once a month hosts open days with up to 100 attendees, which include access to the university’s telescope and a professor or student guest speaker. Stone also hosted a podcast called The Queen’s Observatory’s Fast Radio Bursts, which consisted of talks on various astronomical topics and discussions with various faculty members and students.
After his four years of research as a Ph.D. candidate at Queen’s University, Stone had to defend his Ph.D. to get the official title. To do this, Stone compiled a thesis that he sent to his supervisor, Professor Stéphane Courteau, and other scholars for peer review. On July 28, this team came together for Stone’s Ph.D. defense which consisted of an opening statement followed by a lengthy cross-examination. The peer review team then votes on whether Stone has successfully defended his research to receive his Ph.D. and as it turned out, he certainly did.
Proud family: Brian, Bob and Tracey Stone stop for a photo at Queen’s after Connor successfully defended his PhD.
After years of study and research, Stone expressed that the experience of defending his Ph.D. was an intellectual awakening of his academic potential.
“It was a real realization for me, I went into the defense process thinking of it as a test, it’s really set up as a test of whether you’ve done the job or not, but what I realized towards the end is that it was actually really an amazing learning experience for me,” says Stone. “I learned a lot about my own work and how I can take it forward and make it an impactful part of [scientific]community. So I was super happy and relieved, but I also felt like I learned a lot from the whole process about how to be a better scientist.”
As with many professions, the explorer’s work is never done, and Stone is ready for new endeavors. This September, Stone will be working with a research team in Montreal through a program called Post Doc, which is a training-focused position for those who have successfully completed their Ph.D. From there, he aims to continue his research and build his portfolio to become known to the global scientific community and work towards becoming a professor at Queen’s University.
“I really enjoyed my time here [at Queen’s]and I think if I can come back as a professor, that would be perfect,” he says. “When I was here I got to do a lot more than just research, most of our time is dedicated to learning in one way or another. It’s not just about our own research, but we invite researchers from all over the world to come and give presentations on all different aspects of astronomy. One of the things I love about galaxy research is that you connect to a little bit of everything, I connect to all sorts of other areas of astronomy and I can learn so much.
For more information on Stone’s background and research, visit connorjstone.com
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