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German Ambassador Visits TRIUMF

05 December 2012

TRIUMF hosted a key international visitor on Tuesday, December 4, 2012: His Excellency Werner Wnendt, Ambassador of Germany to Canada. Accompanied by Consul General of Vancouver Hermann Sitz, the ambassador spent nearly two hours at TRIUMF meeting the international staff and students while touring the facility.

Appointed to his post in Canada starting September 2012, the visit to TRIUMF was part of the ambassador's orientation tour with the Canadian science, technology, and economic landscape.  At the start of the visit, he sat down with TRIUMF director Nigel Lockyer and several other key individuals.  He heard about TRIUMF's organization, governance, and science programs.  Accelerator Division Head Lia Merminga talked about some of the strategic partnerships with DESY and other German labs on accelerator science and technology.  Science Division Head Reiner Kruecken talked about nuclear astrophysics and key collaborations between TRIUMF and GSI to pursue this research.  Nuclear Medicine Division Head Paul Schaffer talked about nuclear medicine and medical isotopes, relating the progress in Canada to key initiatives in Germany especially the molecular imaging expertise in Munich.  In the ensuing discussion, the Ambassador spoke about the upcoming emphasis on the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Europe and Canada and emphasized the unique role that Canada plays on the world stage. 

On a tour of the laboratory, the Ambassador and Consul General were treated to "dancing paperclips" atop the main cyclotron before learninig about proton therapy for cancer, irradiation services for aerospace and computing companies, and nuclear medicine from Paul Schaffer, Conny Hoehr, and Mike Trinczek.  The group witnessed some medical-isotope preparation in the Nordion hot cells before continuing to ISAC-I where they met Sebastian Raeder to learn about the laser-ionization laboratory and the role it plays in helping to select the isotopes for delivery to the science experiments.  At TITAN, Jens Dilling introduced his research group and spoke about the importance of high-precision mass measurements in helping to understand the basic theory of nuclei.  The ambassador then met Oliver Stelzer-Chilton and got an overview of Canada's involvement in the Large Hadron Collider and ATLAS particle-physics project at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.  Finally, the group moved to ISAC-II and learned about TIGRESS and then superconducting radio-frequency acceleration from Phillip Kolb. 

Several themes connected the morning's discussions: (1) The key role of international collaborations in generating leverage and added value; (2) The constant interplay between discovery and innovation; and (3) The growth of key bilateral relations between countries like Germany and Canada in the backdrop of evolving relations between Europe and North America. What makes everything happen is specific individuals and groups working across borders.

On behalf of TRIUMF and Deutschland, thank you to everyone who made time and space for the Ambassador's visit.  And Vielen Dank to His Excellency for making a visit to TRIUMF a priority element of getting to know Canada.

--by T.I. Meyer, TRIUMF's Head of Strategic Planning & Communication