On Friday, April 17th, TRIUMF welcomed the Honourable Marc Garneau, a Canadian astronaut, engineer and politician. Currently serving as a Member of Parliament for Westmount-Ville-Marie, he serves as science critic for Parliament. The MP visited TRIUMF as part of a larger tour he is conducting of large science centres in Canada (he arrived in Vancouver straight from Saskstaoon and its Canadian Light Source). The Hon. Garneau was welcomed to TRIUMF by Director Nigel Lockyer who shared the laboratory's Five-Year Plan and gave a short tour of the facility.
Marc Garneau was the first Canadian in space and has taken part in three flights aboard NASA Space Shuttles. In 2001 he was appointed president of the Canadian Space Agency and in 2003, he became the ninth Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, one of TRIUMF's member universities. Five years later he resigned his position at the Canadian Space Agency to run for the Liberal Party in the Canadian federal 2006 elections. Although he lost to a conservative candidate he remained active in politics. In 2008, Marc Garneau was nominated as the candidate for the riding of Westmount-Ville Marie and won the federal election by over 9,000 votes.
During his tour of the lab, Hon. Garneau visited several of the nuclear-physics experiments and beam lines. Known as Canada's first astronaut, he was very impressed with TRIUMF and encouraged everyone to keep up the good work.
Marc Garneau
By: Maria Jose Crousillat
Communications Assistant