Pierre Savard has been named Radio-Canada's "2012 Scientist of the Year" for his remarkable contribution, along with other Canadian scientists on the ATLAS team, to the discovery of the Higgs boson particle. Savard is both a professor at the University of Toronto and a TRIUMF research scientist, a living testament to the coast-to-coast Canadian collaboration in particle physics.
Savard, one of about 150 particle physicists (including students) from across Canada involved in the project, played a key role in what has been described as one of the most important scientific quests of a generation. In July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations announced observation of a new particle thought to be the long-sought Higgs boson. Canadians have played key roles in buidiling the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator, the ATLAS detector, and are active in the massive computing grid and physics-analysis teams that sift through the data. Savard led one of the analysis working groups on so-called "exotics," a position to which he was elected by the collaboration of thousands of particle physcists around the world. For the Higgs results, he worked on the "W-W" analyses and was one of a handful of editors for the scientific paper.
Radio-Canada's Scientist of the Year is awarded to teams or individuals who have distinguished themselves via a discovery, published work, or remarkable achievement. The honour, first granted in 1987, is now in its 26th year.
Savard is scheduled to appear on the radio show Les années lumière, featuring host Yanick Villedieu, on Sunday, January 27 from noon to 1 pm on Première Chaîne (95.1 FM in Montreal). Télévision de Radio-Canada's Découverte will also feature an interview with Savard later that same Sunday at 6:30 pm.
For more information, see Radio Canada and the University of Toronto.
-- by T.I. Meyer, TRIUMF's Head of Strategic Planning & Communication
(Photo courtesy Radio Canada)