The 12th annual Summer Student Symposium took place Friday August 10 in the TRIUMF Conference Room. The Symposium brings undergraduate and summer co-op students to give brief (~10') talks to their peers, with a panel of judges critiquing their presentations.
This year 14 students vied for the opportunity to be selected to present their talk at the 2013 Winter Nuclear and Particle Physics meeting in Banff, Alberta, or at another suitable conference, at TRIUMF's expense. The Symposium followed a Presentation Skills Workshop in July conducted by the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology at UBC, where sixteen summer students received instruction on how to give an effective talk.
Every year the judges have a formidable task selecting the jury award, and this year was no exception. In the end Eric Himbeault, who works with the Proton Cancer Therapy Group, was the jury selection, with Laz Milovanovic (PIF) and Amy MacLean (muonium chemistry) given honourable mentions. The talks were uniformly excellent and the quality and professionalism would be welcome at any TRIUMF seminar! The judges applaud all participants, and look forward to another daunting selection process next year.
-- by Marcello Pavan, TRIUMF's Outreach Coordinator