This paper presents a review of some improvements in the status of women in physics in Canada in the past three years as a result of joint efforts by government, academics, industry participants, the Canadian Association of Physicists, granting agencies, and representatives of outreach and science promotion programs.

The Journal of Engineering Design provides an essential forum for dialogue on insightful issues across all disciplines and aspects of the design of engineered products and systems. The Journal publishes pioneering best industrial practice as well as authoritative research, studies and review papers on the underlying principles of design, its management, practice, techniques and methodologies. All published articles have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymous refereeing by independent expert referees. The Journal publishes only the highest quality original research contributions and recognises the best contribution of the previous year with a Best Paper Award. The Award is based on a rigorous paper selection procedure and a demanding set of assessment criteria. The best paper must offer an original scientific contribution and novel results for archiving, the reported work should reflect scientifically rigorous engineering design research, the methods and results should be validated and useful, and the overall presentation should be complete, well structured, and transparent. Specific selection criteria reflect the importance of the problem and relevance to the journal, the scientific/professional value of the ideas presented, the comprehensiveness of investigations, significance and societal impacts of the findings, and the quality of conclusions. In addition, repeatability and timeliness of doing the work, consolidation of the results, reference to other critical works, clarity of writing, and quality of illustrations have been taken into account in the assessment process. The Editor is pleased to announce the best paper of 2015 as:

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While the overall climate for women physicists both in academia and industry has improved significantly over the past decade in Canada, it will be some time before women are well represented. Numbers of women in physics at all academic levels have increased, but are less than ideal at the full professor level. Organizations such as the Canadian Association of University Teachers and local initiatives are striving to minimize the socio-economic and professional gaps between women and men. The Canadian Association of Physicists, through its Committee to Encourage Women in Physics, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council are supportive and serve as catalysts, bringing together men and women to discuss and address issues concerning women in physics across Canada.

Magnetostrictive rods of the approximate composition Fe82Ga18 have been produced with a preferred 〈100〉 axial crystallographic texture. Randomly oriented polycrystalline rods were cast by a suction extraction technique and a preferred 〈100〉 axial crystallographic texture was introduced through zone melting. Capacitance dilatometery showed that the as-cast rods and oriented zone-melted rods had saturation magnetostrictions of approximately 50ppm and 100ppm, respectively. Subsequent annealing of zone-melted rods resulted in a re-orientation of the axial crystallographic texture to a preferential 〈111〉 direction along with a corresponding reduction of the saturation magnetostriction.

Tellurium spectra were recorded on a 3 m normal incidence vacuum spectrograph in the spectroscopy laboratory of St. Francis Xavier University using a triggered spark light source. The spectrum of the singly ionized tellurium atom was investigated in the wavelength region 746–1838 Å using Hartree–Fock configuration interaction calculations involving 5s 2 5p 3 , 5s5p 4 , 5s 2 5p 2 (5d + 6d + 7d + 8d + 6s + 7s + 8s + 9s) configurations. Earlier analysis by Handrup and Mack has been revised, and 27 new energy levels have been added, to complete the 5s 2 5p 3 , 5s 2 5p 2 (5d + 6d + 6s + 7s) configurations. Now five levels of the ground-state configuration and 78 of the excited configurations are known. Two hundred and nineteen spectral lines have been classified in this spectrum. Least squares fitted parametric calculations were used for the final interpretation and LS percentage compositions. The wavelength accuracy of our measurement for unblended and sharp lines is ±0.005 Å.

In recent years the overall climate for women in academia in Canada has improved. Efforts are being made to attract girls to science at a young age. The enrollment of women across undergraduate and graduate programs in the physical sciences has increased gradually in the past decade, with a sharp increase at the graduate level. In light of a large number of upcoming retirements in academic positions, the presence of women in academia will continue to grow, supported by efforts to ensure equity in academia made by government agencies, academic institutions, and faculty associations.

A technique originally developed for low-temperature applications, capacitance dilatometry has recently become possible at elevated temperatures. The method is maturing and becoming easier due to developments in design and in electronics. Offering Angstrom resolution, this technique is particularly applicable to the study of phase transitions, magnetostric- tion, and thermal expansion anom- alies.

The index of refraction of Cd0.9Mn0.1Te was measured at a wavelength of 10.25 μm at room temperature on twinned unoriented monocrystal samples. The result was n=2.57±0.01. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the index of refraction was measured to be (1/n)dn/dt=5.0±0.1×10−5 K−1. The optical absorption coefficient was α=0.13 cm−1. Finally, the linear expansion coefficient in the range of 293–373 K was found to be γ=−1±1×10−6 K−1.

We have investigated the thermochromic order-disorder phase transitions in two superionic conducting compounds, Ag2HgI4 and Cu2HgI4, using capacitance dilatometry to determine the relative volume change, ΔV/V, at the transitions. We find an average ΔV/V of 9.6×10−3 for Ag2HgI4 at a transition temperature of 48.75 °C and an average ΔV/V of 4.0×10−3 for Cu2HgI4 at a transition temperature of 63 °C.