Arthur McDonald, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for physics, was at Carleton Oct. 16 to talk about his work, answer questions, and give thanks to faculty and students.
McDonald was the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) where he observed neutrinos, some of the most common —but most difficult to detect —particles in the universe.
McDonald and his team built the Sudbury lab two kilometres underground in an abandoned mine. They established that, contrary to beliefs at the time, neutrinos have mass.
In 1989, McDonald, a Canadian, came to Queen’s University from Princeton University to become the project’s director. His deputy director was Carleton’s own David Sinclair.
Sinclair is now the head of an extension of the original laboratory, the SNOLAB.
Carleton has worked closely with the project since its beginning as well as with the National Research Council (NRC).
At the event, McDonald commended Sinclair’s role in the project, and thanked him and all of the project’s other collaborators for their contributions.
“David was a leader, first at Oxford, then at NRC, and then here at Carleton when it came to Carleton being the institution that was predominantly working on this in Ottawa,” McDonald said.
Sinclair spoke of the importance of the project’s findings at the event.
“It’s great for Canadian science. I serve on many international committees, working at advising labs around the world, and they’re all saying this has already had an impact, in Spain, in the U.S., on the world science in this area we call astroparticle physics, so it’s wonderful,” he said.
He also thanked McDonald for his work and enthusiasm throughout the project, as well as SNOLAB’s expectations for the future.
Carleton’s physics department recently hired Mark Boulay, one of the original contributors to the SNO project.
He said he was confident the university would continue to be a key player in SNOLAB moving forward.
“The Carleton group has always been very high profile, in general you know, the whole Carleton physics department is very well known,” Boulay said.
Sinclair also said Carleton will continue to be deeply involved with SNOLAB.
“We’ve led the world. We have a head start. We have in many respects what is the best facility. I think we have every opportunity to lead. We have students who have learned, and learned well,” he said.
—with files from Ahren Baumgardner
