The 21st annual TRIUMF Summer Institute (TSI) will come to a close this afternoon after two weeks of an intensive scientific program. Each year, TSI engages around 40 experimental and theoretical graduate students and young researchers in a rigorous program of lectures, discussions, small group work, hands-on problem solving, and poster sessions. This year, the program focused on subjects pertaining to LHC collider physics. Experts from institutions across North America lectured on topics ranging from accelerators, detector design, analysis methods, and statistics, to the physics of the Standard Model and a survey of the physics beyond the Standard Model that the LHC is designed to find. Cliff Burgess' (Perimeter/McMaster) lectures on the Standard Model were particularly well received. "Dr. Burgess lectured on a subject that most of us have taken courses in," explained Isabel, Chair of this year's TSI organizing committee, "but everybody explains it a little bit differently. It is so germane to our work that it is always exciting for an experimentalist to feel that little twinge when starting to understand what it's like to have a theorist's intuitive feel for the subject. We can all do the math, more or less, but it's thrilling to start to think you understand why the math should be that way."
An element of TSI that continues to draw participants back each year is the participation-driven environment that encourages close interaction among students and between students and lecturers. Isabel explained, "TSI gives students a chance to listen to several experts who are excellent at explaining their subjects, and they have ample opportunities to ask them questions, chat with them, and find out about different aspects of their field." TSI is a unique experience for students and it provides the opportunity to delve much deeper into a subject than one normally would in attending a large university lecture or physics conference.
But it wasn't all work and no play; TSI participants did take some time to explore the beautiful city of Vancouver. They kayaked the coastline of Deep Cove, played an outdoor game of volleyball, took in a Shakespearean play at Bard on the Beach, and watched the fireworks display by the United Kingdom during the annual Celebration of Lights International Fireworks Competition.
Whether participants attended TSI for credit towards their university studies, to brush-up on their physics after being out of academia for some time, or simply out of interest, there was something to please and engage all who participated. "Overall, TSI 2009 was a tremendous success," said Isabel, "I was hoping to have a great set of speakers and an enthusiastic, engaged group of students from all over Canada and the world and I have not been disappointed."
For copies of lecture notes, photos, and additional information, please visit the TSI 2009 website.
Next year's summer institute on nuclear physics will be held June 21 - July 2, the two weeks leading up to INPC 2010 in Vancouver, and will be jointly organized with the US.
-- Meghan Magee, Communications Assistant