Another TRIUMF for U of R Physics
Posted: July 23, 2015 6:00 a.m.
The ARIEL facility was constructed in the heart of the TRIUMF campus in Vancouver in 2013 and produced the first beam from its electron linear accelerator in fall, 2014 (Photo courtesy of TRIUMF).
|
The University of Regina is part of a consortium of universities contributing their expertise to a cutting edge research facility.
The Canadian Foundation for Innovation has approved an application from the University of Victoria (UVic) for more than $13 million to help expand the Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory (ARIEL ) in Vancouver.
The facility is operated by TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. The U of R has a 30 year involvement with TRIUMF experiments and is one of 19 universities (including UVic) on its board.
ARIEL will allow TRIUMF to expand its groundbreaking research in areas of science, health (medical isotopes used in imaging and therapy) and technological applications for industry. ARIEL together with TRIUMF will deliver important social and economic impacts, in medical isotopes for targeted cancer therapy, and in continued advancement of accelerator technology in Canada in partnership with industry.
Dr. David Malloy, the U of R’s Vice-President (Research), is a member of TRIUMF’s Board of Management.
“Our participation in the ARIEL project demonstrates the excellence of our researchers in the Department of Physics. We’ve been in the big leagues of physics research in Canada for years,” says Dr. Malloy.
“The U of R is one of 19 collaborating institutions from across Canada which participated in the ARIEL-II proposal submission," says Dr. Lia Merminga, Head of the TRIUMF Accelerator Division. "We are grateful to the U of R for its support and look forward to intense exchanges with the Physics Department faculty to realize the promise of ARIEL for scientific discovery and applications."
In recognition of the high quality of research in Physics, the department most recently received $405,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to Professor Dr. Zisis Papandreou and Professor Dr. George Lolos. The money will greatly assist the department in continuing its investigation into the “nuclear glue that binds us” in the universe - a world-class collaborative effort with the Jefferson Lab Accelerator in Newport News, Virginia.
The Physics Department is also involved in an international collaboration in Japan, studying neutrinos, nature’s most elusive particles, among many other projects.
As for the ARIEL project, it was profiled extensively recently at the Canadian Association of Physicists Annual Congress in Edmonton, which had a strong presence from the U of R Physics Department.
“Our latest collaboration with TRIUMF provides us with many opportunities in basic as well as applied science,” says Dr. Papandreou, Professor of Physics at the U of R. “The isotopes experiments in particular in Vancouver are connected to Saskatchewan’s efforts on nuclear imaging here at U of R and the University of Saskatchewan.”
The Department of Physics offers graduate students and faculty members opportunities to pursue their research locally, and at locations elsewhere in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan.