 | |
| From left: Patrick Brown, Ray Boughen, Dona Cadman, Rod Bruinooge, Earl Dreeshen, students Alexandar Mechev and Lazar Milovanovic, and Harold Albrecht. |
Last week, Dona Cadman, MP Surrey-North, hosted members of the Canadian Post-Secondary Education (PSE) Conservative Caucus for a visit to the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University's satellite campus in Surrey, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Part of their day at UBC on Monday, December 14, included a stop at TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, for a quick tour and a look into what the laboratory offers Canadian university students in terms of research and training.
The tour was attended by Rod Bruinooge, MP for Winnipeg-South and Chair of the PSE Caucus; vice chair of the PSE Caucus: Dona Cadman, MP for Surrey-North; Patrick Brown, MP for Barrie, Ontario; Harold Albrecht, MP for Kitchener-Connestoga, Ontario; Peter Braid, MP for Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario; Ray Boughen, MP for Palliser, Saskatchewan; Earl Dreeshen, MP for Red Deer, Alberta; and Don Brooks, Associate Vice President Research & International, UBC.
With only half an hour to tour the lab, the visitors were guided on a whirlwind tour to four sites around the facility where they had the opportunity to hear from undergraduate and graduate students currently working on various research projects at TRIUMF. A sophisticated group, the MPs had good questions and listened carefully; one even "tweeted" live about the tour.
After a brief overview of the TRIUMF facility by Tim Meyer, Head of Strategic Planning and Communications, the group headed to the Meson Hall where TRIUMF graduate student Scott Stubbs (UBC) explained the materials science program at TRIUMF and his work with MuSR (a technique for studying the detailed magnetic properties of materials). The visitors then had the opportunity to learn more about TRIUMF's nuclear-medicine program from Eric Price (UBC) who also outlined his graduate work involving radiolabelling of molecules for medical research. Undergraduate students Alexandar Mechev (University of Waterloo) and Lazar Milovanovic (UBC) then explained their work on the TIGRESS detector and its role in TRIUMF's nuclear physics program. The tour concluded with a stop at the ISAC-II clean room where international graduate reasearch assistant Anna Grassellino (University of Pennsylvania) explained TRIUMF's work in accelerator science.
The visitors were very impressed with the student presentations and TRIUMF's commitment to provide post-secondary students with on-the-ground research opportunities that complement their classroom experience.
--Meghan Magee, Communications Assistant