Research group

Ten members of the contrail team standing on the grass in front of a glass building on Western's campus that reflects a blue sky with clouds — The contrail team at Western, August 2026.

The group includes graduate students, research staff, and undergraduate and co-op students. Most work on the Western Contrail Research Project, space situational awareness or meteor physics. Several graduate students are co-supervised with Peter Brown in the Western Meteor Physics Group, and we work closely with Lisa Schielicke on contrail modelling.

Luc Busquin, an Alaska Airlines captain and the founder of ContrailCast, is our close collaborator on the contrail project. We started working together in May 2023, and the project grew out of that collaboration.

Current members

Former members

Prospective students

The group is at capacity at the moment, but I am always happy to hear from strong students whose interests fit our work, such as machine learning for contrail observations, orbits of satellites and space debris, or the physical properties of meteoroids. Graduate students are admitted through the graduate program in Physics and Astronomy; please write to me at dvida@uwo.ca before applying, with a short note on your background and interests.