Nestled in the heart of Banff, Alberta, under sunny skies and melting snow, the Canadian subatomic physics community met for the 47th Winter Nuclear and Particle Physics Conference (WNPPC) from February 12 to 14. The conference was held at the Banff Centre complex, which provided a comfortable atmosphere for the meeting, with a spectacular dining hall overlooking the Rocky Mountains, and a cozy conference room that turned out to be quite popular with the local wildlife, especially the deer that were happily grazing nearby!
Featured sessions focused on the research areas of interest to the Canadian community, both experimental and theoretical: particle physics at the high energy frontier; precision flavor physics and CP-violation; neutrino physics; nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics; and astroparticle physics and searches for dark matter.
The WNPPC has a special focus on providing a forum for junior researchers - both students and postdocs. Graduate students in particular were encouraged to attend and present their work in front of their peers from across the country, and this year's meeting had excellent representation from students in the research groups across the country. The standard of the talks was uniformly high, and prizes were awarded for the best student talks, funded jointly by the CAP's Divisions of Particle (PPD) and Nuclear (DNP) Physics. WNPPC Student Prize winners include James Bueno, University of British Columbia, $250; Michael Trottier-McDonald, Simon Fraser University, B.C., $150; and Tim Friesen, University of Calgary, $100.
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Gerald Gwinner, left, presenting the 2010 DNP Thesis Prize to recipient Rob MacDonald. |
WNPPC participants.
Corina Andreoiu, left, and 2010 Student Prize Winner, Rachel Ashley.In addition, there were a number of invited overview talks given by Sonia Bacca (TRIUMF), Gerald Gwinner (Manitoba U), Dean Karlen (Victoria U), Rob MacDonald (Alberta U, CAP DNP Thesis Prize Recipient), David Morrissey (TRIUMF), Tony Noble (Queens' U), Steve Robertson (McGill) and Isabel Trigger (TRIUMF).
Some highlights of this year's meeting included presentation of the first data from the LHC and the ATLAS experiment by Isabel Trigger, and final results from the TWIST experiment presented by Rob MacDonald and James Bueno. James was a Student Prize Winner; Rob received the 2010 DNP Thesis Prize, and presented a talk based on his work titled "A precision muon decay measurement by TWIST". More about Rob can be found here.
The lone international attendee, Rachel Ashley studies at the University of Liverpool and spoke about her work at TRIUMF after being awarded a summer undergraduate placement last summer working with SHARC, a major new device for studying nucleon transfer reactions which has been used at the ISAC-2 radioactive beam facility. "From installing new vacuum chambers, to constructing new electronics, the commissioning of SHARC was a varied and interesting story that helped to fill an enjoyable summer placement at TRIUMF" noted Rachel.
The WNPPC ran from the evening of Friday, February 12, until midday on Sunday, February 14, with Saturday afternoon free to go skiing or to relax in the beauty of Banff, and it preceded the Lake Louise Winter Institute which runs at Chateau Lake Louise from February 15- 20.
The 2010 WNPPC meeting was organized by the University of Victoria and TRIUMF.
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During coffee breaks, participants looked on as deer gathered outside the Banff Centre. |
-- Melissa M. Baluk, TRIUMF Communications Assistant