Joyce Murray, the twice-elected Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra, paid TRIUMF a visit on April 14, 2009. Murray was greeted by Director Nigel Lockyer and then met several TRIUMF scientists for a discussion of TRIUMF's recent accomplishments and vision for the future. Murray is the Liberal Caucus Intergovernmental Affairs Liaison for B.C., and the Vice-Chair of the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Health.
During the discussion, Lockyer provided an overview of TRIUMF's achievements and current activities, its future plans, and the support TRIUMF needs in order to carry out the program outlined in its new Five-Year Plan for 2010-2015. Murray expressed interest in the research done at TRIUMF, and learned about how accelerators might be used to produce the Molybdenum-99 needed for diagnostic medical procedures, potentially supplementing the conventional method using nuclear reactors.
After the information exchange, Murray went on a tour of TRIUMF, escorted by Lockyer and research scientist Barry Davids. She stopped by the PET scanner model and learned from Conny Hoehr how medical isotopes trace metabolic activity in the body and was accompanied by Colin Morton through the ISAC-II facility. Murray also visited Isabel Trigger at the ATLAS Tier-1 Data Centre, and Jens Dilling at TITAN. At the end of the visit, Murray left TRIUMF with a new appreciation of TRIUMF's innovative technologies and its strong overlap with Canada's national priorities.
(From left to right) Joyce Murray, Nigel Lockyer and Colin Morton in front of TIGRESS
By: Ting Wang
Communications Assistant