The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, visited TRIUMF and AAPS on Friday, February 11, 2011. He was in Vancouver for a number of events and included the south end of UBC campus on his tour.
As some will remember, the Minister visited TRIUMF in January 2009 and got a broad overview of TRIUMF's programs. This visit focused on changes at TRIUMF since that time. Despite a bit of rain and cold weather, TRIUMF put on a good show. The visit started with a short summary of TRIUMF's activities since 2009 and a discussion with the heads of TRIUMF's divisions. Director Nigel Lockyer then led the Minister on a focused tour of TRIUMF that reviewed three of TRIUMF's core activities in this five-year plan:
ATLAS Tier-1 Data Centre. Isabel Trigger and Reda Tafirout showed the Minister the Canadian ATLAS Tier-1 Data Centre. This data-storage and processing centre is directly connected to CERN’s ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and is connected to 9 other centres around the world that stores and shares data for Canadian and international physicists. The Centre was funded by CFI, led by Simon Fraser University, providing global computing resources as defined in an MOU between Canada and CERN.
Nuclear Medicine GMP Laboratories and Tc-99m Isotope Production. After a short trip through Nordion and a discussion with plant manager Jerry Porter, the Minister visited the new radiochemistry laboratories with Paul Schaffer, Ken Buckley, and their team. These newly upgraded laboratories (with support from WD Canada) showcase TRIUMF’s capabilities in the physics and chemistry of medical isotopes and the long-standing business relationship with Nordion and several emerging opportunities with AAPS, Inc. He learned about the four-partner team led by TRIUMF with support from NRCan that aims to produce Tc-99m isotopes using existing cyclotrons in Vancouver and Ontario.
ARIEL. Lia Merminga, Remy Dawson, Gary Ridout, Franco Mammarella, Shane Koscielniak, and others from the ARIEL team talked about the Advaced Rare Isotope Laboratory project, jointly funded by the Government of Canada, CFI, and the Government of British Columbia. When completed, this flagship project will give Canada unparalleled capabilities in the production and study of isotopes for science and medicine. Phase I of the ARIEL project is being constructed in the Electron Hall and will connect via the provincially-funded underground beam tunnel to the existing suite of isotope research facilities.
The minister then had a chance to meet with a collection of TRIUMF graduate and undergraduate students and he talked to them about the importance of science and technology for the future of Canada. He also met Stephan Ettenauer, a Vanier Scholar working on the TITAN experiment.
Next stop was a visit to TRIUMF's Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, Advanced Applied Physics Solutions, Inc. (AAPS). Minister Goodyear met President and CEO Jack Scott and Chair of the Board Edward A. Odishaw and the senior management team. He was interested to learn about the multiple thrusts of AAPS technology project and its developing relationships with the family of TRIUMF-consortium member universities as well as key corporate partners. He visited the Isotope Separator Test Facility.
The Minister departed from TRIUMF in mid-afternoon in between cloud bursts. He thanked everyone for sharing their time and energy with him and called TRIUMF one of the jewels in Canada's science and technology crown.
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| Minister Goodyear visits the Electron Hall, the future home of the heart of ARIEL -- the e-linac. A sample superconducting RF cavity stands upright in the centre between TRIUMF director Nigel S. Lockyer and the Minister. (Photo courtesy Mindy Hapke) |
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the visit and a special thank-you to the Minister and his staff for making it all possible.
--By T.I. Meyer, Head, Strategic Planning & Communications