The Department of Physics organizes a number of outreach activities in which members of the Department aim to communicate the excitement and fascination of physics to the general public, schools, and other interested groups. See links at left for all the activities offered.

Anna I. McPherson Lecture Series

The Anna I. McPherson Lectures in Physics were established in honour of Anna Isobel McPherson, a member of the McGill Physics Faculty from 1940 until her death in 1979. Over her long association with the Department of Physics, Anna McPherson made important contributions in teaching, research, and counselling, helping and teaching a very large number of students. The McPherson lecture series was established to acknowledge her outstanding generosity and her many valued academic contributions. The mandate of these lectures is to bring a distinguished physicist to McGill each year to give two lectures, one of which is a lecture for the general public.

Information about this year's lecture and previous lectures in the series can be found here.

More information about Anna McPherson, and the McPherson collection of early 20th century experimental apparatus, can be found here.

McGill Physics Museum Tours

The Department has two historical collections that can be visited. Rutherford Museum contains the apparatus used by Nobel Prize winner Ernest Rutherford when he was Professor of Experimental Physics at McGill from 1898-1907. The Anna McPherson Collection is comprised of antique physical instruments and apparatus dating from the mid-19th century to about 1920, which were used in teaching and scientific research at McGill.

Listed in Atlas Obscura as on of the 20 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in Montréal and in L'Actualité's Montréal Insolite, both are open to the public (prior appointment necessary, contact [email protected]).