Awards

Overview

As an institution, TRIUMF has been recognized for excellence and leadership in many capacities, a summary of which has been provided below:

NSERC — Synergy Awards for Innovation

In 2007, TRIUMF and D-Pace received the Synergy Award for “Small and Medium Sized Companies (single company of up to 500 employees).” TRIUMF and D-Pace were given the award for “the development of products and services for cyclotrons and other particle accelerators.” In 2004, TRIUMF and Nordion received the Synergy Award for “Large Companies (single company of more than 500 employees).”

IEEE — Engineering Milestone Award

The IEEE gives its Engineering Milestone award to projects that result in important advances being made in the fields of electrical engineering and computing. Recipients include Benjamin Franklin for his work on electricity and Alexander Graham Bell for his work contributing to the telephone. In 2010, TRIUMF received the Milestone award in recognition of the first 500MeV beam from the TRIUMF cyclotron in 1974. The IEEE applauded the use of TRIUMF’s cyclotron to “conduct pioneering studies that have advanced nuclear physics, particle physics, molecular and materials science, and nuclear medicine.”

EIC Engineering Institute of Canada — Honourary Membership

In 2012, TRIUMF was designated as a honourary member of the Engineering Institute of Canada on the occasion of its 125th anniverary, for TRIUMF’s main cyclotron developed in the 1970s. Honourary memberships are awarded to those who have achieved outstanding distinction in engineering through service to the profession of engineering in Canada.

Government of Canada — Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research

In 2008, Advanced Applied Physics Solutions, Inc. (AAPS), a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of TRIUMF, was founded as one of the 11 new Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECRs) established by the Canadian government. The CECR award provided $14.95 million over five years in order to facilitate the process of bringing major scientific discoveries to the marketplace.

NSERC — John C. Polyani Award

In 2006, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), which is an international collaboration with 100 collaborators, including TRIUMF, received the inaugural John C. Polyani Award of $250,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). SNO was awarded for their groundbreaking research on neutrinos. This researched helped solve a scientific problem that had persisted for three decades: the discrepancy between the number of neutrinos observed, and the number theoretically predicted, to come from the sun. Their results also proved that neutrinos have a tiny mass, where previously they were thought to be massless.

EAC Editor’s Association of Canada — Tom Fairley Award

In 2008, Melva McLean was awarded the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence by the Editor’s Association of Canada for her role in producing TRIUMF’s 850-page Five-Year Plan, titled Five-Year Plan 2010 – 2015: Building a Vision for the Future. Tim Meyer, co-editor of the Five-Year Plan, said, “This is the first time a science planning document has been so well prepared. We are grateful for the EAC’s recognition.”

Guinness World Records

TRIUMF was awarded the Guinness World Record for the “World’s largest normally conducting cyclotron, built in 1974.”