News Release | For Immediate Release | July 15, 2004
(Vancouver, BC) -- On Monday July 19, Vancouver Deputy Mayor Sam Sullivan will be making the welcoming address at the Eighth International Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC8) hosted by TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics.
NIC8 will attract over 250 top astrophysicists, nuclear physicists, cosmochemists, and scientists in related disciplines to take part in discussions on the creation of energy and elements in the universe. The symposium is the premier biennial conference for these experts from dozens of the world's top universities and laboratories, who will be spending the week in Vancouver, exploring insights into the evolution of the universe.
The broad, interdisciplinary scope of the conference will cover topics including the Big Bang, the evolution of stars, and the dynamics of stellar explosions, such as supernovae. The scientific debates will address fundamental issues of our existence, since all heavy elements seen on earth, like carbon and gold, were created in the stellar furnaces of living and exploding stars billions of years ago. With the advent of sophisticated new equipment, astronomers and astrophysicists are in the midst of a "golden age", to which TRIUMF is contributing as the world's premier facility for experimental nuclear astrophysics.
Nuclei in the Cosmos VIII will be opened by Councillor Sullivan at 8:30am, on Monday, July 19th, at the Coast Plaza Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Sam Sullivan is the current Deputy Mayor of Vancouver, and has been a City Councillor since 1993. TRIUMF is operated as a joint venture by six Canadian member universities and six associate member universities, and is funded by a contribution through the National Research Council. TRIUMF is located on the southeast corner of the UBC campus.
ABOUT TRIUMF
TRIUMF is Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. Located on the south campus of the University of British Columbia, TRIUMF is owned and operated as a joint venture by a consortium of the following Canadian universities, via a contribution through the National Research Council Canada: University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, Carleton University, University of Guelph, University of Manitoba, McMaster University, Université de Montréal, Queen's University, University of Regina, Simon Fraser University, Saint Mary's University, University of Toronto, University of Victoria, York University.