Latest news with #Stil
Hamilton Spectator
14-07-2025
- Science
- Hamilton Spectator
‘You have an asteroid named after you': UCalgary prof surprised with celestial honour
During grad school, Jeroen Stil nearly had an asteroid named after him. Sadly, his last name, Stil, was too close to Still, an asteroid that had been previously named. Now, nearly 30 years later, asteroid 611064, or Jeroenstil, orbits our galaxy. Dr. Jeroen Stil, an associate professor in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary was nominated for the honour by Dr. Phil Langill, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science and director of the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory . They now both have asteroids in their name. Asteroids are typically named by their discoverers, and in this case, astronomer David Balam — credited with hundreds of minor planet discoveries — had the naming rights for both asteroids after confirming their orbits. Balam first went to Langill, honouring him with the name. Balam asked Langill if another UCalgary faculty member was worthy of the honour for his second asteroid. 'When Dave asked me if there was somebody in your department that I would like to nominate, I was recalling all of Jeroen's great background in astronomical history and the cool things he's done. I thought, 'yeah, let's, I'll put forward Jeroen Stil.' That being said, all of my colleagues in the department really are doing outstanding stuff like, unbelievable,' Langill said. The pair is often in friendly competition. Langill thought that secretly nominating his colleague for the honour could finally be his opportunity to one-up his rival, without knowing Stil's grad school story. 'He always bested me. It was so aggravating, like when something cool happened, or I saw something, or I discovered something, he always had me better. So, it kind of ticked me off a little bit, but it's just kind of a friendly competition. I don't even know if he knows that. In my mind, we have a competition going on. But I mean, he's a really cool guy,' he said. Stil was born and raised in the Netherlands and received his PhD at the University of Leiden before moving to Canada. Stil has been in Calgary since 2008. A bio of the namesake, filled with information Langill did not have, is needed for the naming process. Stil said he was confused when Langill asked for his birthdate, but never thought it would be for the asteroid. 'He asked me for my birthday a while ago, but he wouldn't say what it was for. So, I thought, 'well, I don't know, maybe they're counting the days to my retirement,'' Stil joked. When Langill got the notice that their asteroid names were official, he couldn't wait to share the news. Sadly, Langill was busy on campus while Stil was working from home. Eventually, they got on a Zoom call, and Langill shared the news. 'I could just see his face drop and his eyes kind of bug out a little bit,' Langill said. 'I think it took him a minute to process what was going on. I didn't know the story that he almost had an asteroid named after him already. That's just another one of those examples of how he bugs me. I think I saw him wiping a couple of tears from his eyes a little bit because he was pretty slammed with the news that there was an asteroid. It was fun to see his reaction.' Both asteroids, Langill and Jeroenstil, are far away and hard to spot and will stay that way for the foreseeable future. 'Space travel is a lot of fun. I liken it to a nice ride on a very scary roller coaster. I would be happy if somebody, sometime, took a close up image of it with a satellite or something that just happened to be passing by, just to get a glimpse of what it looks like up close, because right now, it's just a dot on a telescopic image,' Langill said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Winnipeg Free Press
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Stil a thrill
A troubled young woman with purple streaks in her hair serves tables at a hoity-toity gentleman's club on Catalina Island in hopes of wooing a wealthy husband or a new married friend — then she's accused of stealing a priceless jade sculpture and is next seen when her corpse bobs to the surface of the Pacific Ocean. And off we go on Michael Connelly's 40th superb police procedural, riding the freeways of Los Angeles with hardboiled homicide cop Harry Bosch, detective Renee Ballard, and most recently young police officer Maddie Bosch, following in father's footsteps. Oh, wait. Mark DeLong Photography Michael Connelly is known for his detective Harry Bosch, but in his 40th police procedural, he's introduced a new main character: detective sergeant Stilwell. There are no freeways on Catalina. And no one named Bosch or Ballard is in sight, though our lead detective sure sounds a lot like Harry Bosch. A past in the police dive unit rather than a tunnel rat in Vietnam, but still, could be a younger Bosch clone. Insubordinate? Check. Doesn't follow orders? Check. Ventures outside the rules at times? Check. Doesn't get along with lazy or corrupt fellow police officers? Check. Opposes authority at any level, at any time? Check. Messes up relationships with great women? Check. But does he solve crimes that so many others can't? Oh, please. Nightshade brings us Connelly's latest new character, Los Angeles County sheriff's detective sergeant Stilwell — no first name, Stil to his friends, Stillborn to several loathsome characters. And for all intents and purposes, he might as well be Harry Bosch, Harry having become quite old and retired. Connelly's apparently decided against exploring Harry's earlier decades-old cases in favour of simply creating a Harry Bosch by another name. Sure, most of those attributes also apply to Renee Ballard, but work with us here. Does Connelly succeed? Oh yeah, it works, splendidly. Nightshade is terrific. Who knew that if L.A. cops get into the bosses' bad books, but not badly enough to get fired, that they get banished to Catalina — where they drive golf carts instead of cruisers? Other than weekend bar fights, Catalina is, until this murder, pretty quiet. Stilwell immediately loses the case to mainland homicide detectives and, as luck would have it, to a jerk who orchestrated Stil's demotion. Don't you hate when that happens? The mayor is already all over Stil — a murder is bad for impending summer business, when every place on the island is booked solid. How inconvenient. How like the mayor in Jaws. Nightshade The mayor made it clear when Stil arrived that whatever the law said about police independence from politicians, the mayor calls the shots on Catalina. Think Stil bent a knee? Pay attention when you hear that the mayor is involved with offshore investors who want to build a giant ferris wheel. No, you're not going to find out here if it comes up again. Stil first figures out who the dead woman is when he checks out a report of a stolen jade statue from the exclusive men's club and marina. Treating Stil as a servant, the manager tells Stil he fired a young woman who was using her job to try to find a sugar daddy, and the statue's disappearance soon followed. And that young woman had — you got it in one — purple streaks in her hair. Meanwhile, Stil is sleuthing the killing of an endangered species of animal in the remotest part of the island, likely linked to what passes on Catalina for an odious mobster. And Stil's spidey sense is tingling about the drunk he's got in the cells, who concussed a deputy by hitting him from behind with a bottle. Just seemed a little contrived. Hmmmm. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Stil of course ignores orders not to investigate the murder, duly investigating said murder and getting way ahead of the mainland homicide team. Connelly's ability to intrigue us with the minutiae of a police procedural is just so fluid and so seamless. We're hooked long before we realize we don't want to put the book down. Connelly's previous murder mystery promised to establish Ballard and Maddie Bosch as an ongoing team, with Harry acting as though he still carried a badge, and his half-brother, the Lincoln Lawyer, always available to spice up a plot. But Stilwell — pretty safe to say he'll be back. Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin stopped clutching his pearls when he realized that for the first time after 39 guilty pleasures, Michael Connelly's sleuth would not be burning gazillions of gallons of fossil fuels on the freeways.
