Cairine MacDonald, BC Deputy Minister for Innovation and Technology, visited TRIUMF on Tuesday, January 29, 2013. She spent about 45 minutes meeting with a selection of TRIUMF's senior staff and then took a tour of the laboratory to meet some of the scientists, engineers, technicians, and students who drive TRIUMF's overall success.
Hailed as one of Canada's 100 most powerful women, Deputy Minister MacDonald brings a lot of experience and commitment to her new portfolio in the BC Ministry of Advanced Education. During her visit to TRIUMF, she commented on the more than $1.8 billion that the BC government has invested into research and development in "1,000 points of light." She noted that the challenge was to stimulate cross-communication and interaction so that a coherent set of results could emerge. Most small businesses struggle to break through the barrier of >50 employees and survival past five years, she noted.
Deputy Minister MacDonald learned about TRIUMF's relationship with BC universities and its programs of innovation and industrial partnerships from TRIUMF director Nigel S. Lockyer. She then spoke with Jens Dilling, Shane Koscielniak, Henry Chen, Remy Dawson, Paul Schaffer, and Tim Meyer to learn about TRIUMF's diverse research activities. It was noted that TRIUMF is unique in having a close relationship with partnering universities while enjoying a five-year planning horizon. From Edmonton originally, she explained that she knew well one of TRIUMF's key staff Peter Green before he retired.
On her tour, Ms. MacDonald visited the Meson Hall, the TR-13 cyclotron, Nordion, ISAC-I, and ISAC-II where she met Conny Hoehr, Jerry Porter, Ania Kwiatkowksi, Ritu Kanungo, Bob Laxdal, Y.-C. Chao, and Aurelia Laxdal. She was interested in the broad cross-section of activities at TRIUMF as well as the relationship to federal and provincial governments.
We thank the Deputy Minister for her visit, and gratefully acknowledge the efforts of TRIUMF's staff and collaborators in making the visit successful.
-- by T.I. Meyer, TRIUMF's Head of Strategic Planning & Communication