Graduating Enriched Pure and Applied Sciences student Aljoscha Ziegler has been awarded the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship, one of Canada’s top undergraduate STEM awards, valued at $100,000.

“The scholarship will enable me to fully devote myself to my undergraduate studies at McGill University where I will be doing the joint Mathematics and Physics Honours (B.Sc.) program. Furthermore, it will enable me to scale several side projects such as my MediaJump initiative, which provides low-cost tech services to Montreal NGO’s. MediaJump has built several websites free-of charge for Montreal foodbanks and is currently helping build a full medical database system for the medical NGO “Mères du Monde en Santé.” I will also be able to continue pursuing research, especially in physics.”

“Winning the Schulich Leader Scholarship validates not only the efforts I have put into my academic studies, but also the leadership role I have undertaken in several initiatives outside the classroom, from the Dawson tennis club to the Dawson Technicolor high-energy physics team, to MediaJump.”

Physics faculty member and SPACE coordinator Joel Trudeau described Aljoscha as “one of the most capable student leaders I have supervised in recent memory” and recommended him with the “highest possible confidence.”

Joel highlighted Aljoscha’s leadership on a major physics initiative. “His leadership is best exemplified by his work with cosmic rays. In the Fall of 2024, Aljoscha co-initiated the design and construction of a muon detector, a project that rapidly expanded into a multidisciplinary team of 12 students under his co-leadership. Aljoscha’s contributions were extensive, ranging from detector design and development of the track reconstruction algorithm to PCB testing, 3D modeling, and intricate team coordination. His ability to combine advanced technical work with clear leadership was central to the project’s success.”

“In fact, this project won the 2025 CERN Beamline for Schools Competition, granting the team access to the DESY electron accelerator in Hamburg, Germany. During experimental testing, when the detector malfunctioned, Aljoscha did not allow the team to falter under the high-stakes pressure of working in an international lab. Instead, he methodically organized the troubleshooting effort that identified a faulty optical coupling. His poise in that environment was central to the team successfully obtaining a proof of concept.”

Aljoscha credits Dawson with shaping both his academic direction and his approach to collaboration: “Dawson College helped me learn more about the STEM side of innovation. The Enriched Science Program is a wonderful program that helps students form stronger bonds with each other by sharing all their science courses. This enabled me to be part of research teams and learn not just a lot about physics and mathematics, but also about collaborating with peers. Furthermore, the Enriched Science Program offers a nice window into the STEM world by having a guest speaker from industry or academia present each week. More than preparing me for future STEM work, it enabled me to know what kind of work I want to do in the first place.”

“Being able to contribute to science at a level beyond the college curriculum is the best kind of preparation to contribute more in the future. That’s exactly what Dawson gave me.”

His experience in hands-on research confirmed his path. “The Scintillating Chamber project is what solidified my choice of going into physics. This project was a lot of fun and led to wonderful opportunities like testing our Scintillating Chamber at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), a particle accelerator, in Germany. As such, I would like to thank the High Energy Physics club, which is run by Dawson professors Manuel Toharia and Joel Trudeau, for providing the space and knowledge for this wonderful project to develop.”

Reflecting on teamwork, Aljoscha said: “In the Scintillating Chamber project, our team was dedicated and hard-working because we had a shared passion for particle physics. This inspiration enabled us to build a seriously cool detector. I have also led projects where my teammates were less inspired; the results of our project reflected that. My time at Dawson has helped me understand how important it is for a leader to inspire and build a narrative to help the team to become passionate about what they do. Science often comes up with wonderful innovations; often they are undervalued by the public. If I ever become a scientific innovator, I hope that I will be able to share my passion and enthusiasm with the broader public such that my scientific innovation has a tangible human impact.”

He also sees the scholarship as an opportunity to connect with like-minded peers. “Being a Schulich Leader also means being part of a broader community of Schulich Leaders, and I hope to meet other inspiring leaders to foster innovation,” he said.

Looking back on his time at Dawson, Aljoscha emphasized growth and community. “As I look around the faces of the friends I’ve made in CEGEP, I don’t see the same people that I saw on the first day. I see young people who have grown, matured, become confident in their many abilities and ready to take on real world problems. What I enjoyed the most at Dawson is realizing how all of us can really contribute to society in our own unique ways. And how in the span of two short years, many of us have dared to dream for the stars.”

Looking ahead, he hopes to bridge science and human connection. “We have escaped earth and reached the moon, but increasingly we shut ourselves away from others. Yet our technological innovations should be bringing us together, not pulling us apart. I believe that more than ever, there is a need to tie scientific and technological innovation with unity. Through projects like MediaJump, I’ve seen how technology, when directed with care, can genuinely help people and bring them together. I want to keep building things like that: tools and research that serve people rather than extract from them.”

Aljoscha’s plan is to become a technological and social innovator: “I have the love of humanity in my heart, not the heart of a machine. Our Earth is more than abundant to provide for all of us, and it is humanity’s great tragedy that we are not able to set aside our differences to live by each other’s happiness.”

Aljoscha would like to thank all the people that have helped him along the way: “There are so many of you – too many to name – and it is a great source of inspiration for me to try and help others as I am and was helped.”

The Scintillating Chamber project team from Dawson in Germany.