On Wednesday, September 28, TRIUMF played host to group of cosmology enthusiasts from around Vancouver, ranging from professors to research scientists to students. The group of about thirty, mostly from UBC and SFU, regularly meet every semester. In the past, meeting have always been held at the SFU downtown campus at Harbour Centre, making the event at TRIUMF unique. The group was invited to TRIUMF by David Morrissey, one of the laboratory’s theorists in particle physics.
The gathering was the first of the year for the Vancouver cosmologists. While the cosmology group generally meets to present research and discuss results, this most recent meeting was meant to give members the opportunity to get to know each other better. Having not met for an extended period of time, it was important for the group to be able to provide updates and establish some common ground.
The agenda for the meeting consisted of a brief opening, followed by short three-minute talks from each participant. These short talks allowed each individual to inform the others of his or her current research interests. After a quick break following the speeches, members listend to three more in-depth 15-minute talks.
The outcome of these meetings is a degree of collaboration and discussion that can only come out of regular in-person gatherings. It is an opportunity for the cosmological experimenters to meet with theorists. By knowing what others in the field are working on, opportunities for collaboration arise; theorists can suggest directions for research, while experimenters can present their results and identify areas requiring more interpretation.
TRIUMF is a perfect venue for fostering this environment of collaboration. The cyclotron allows experimenters to explore the astrophysics of rare isotopes, the inner workings of supernovae, cosmological development, and the abundance of elements. TRIUMF’s theorists study dark matter, supernovae, stellar structure, and nuclear astrophysics. Cosmology is a fascinating and developing field of study; in fact, today’s Nobel Prize in Physics announcement revealed that this year’s recipients will be three cosmologists, recognized for their work in discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. TRIUMF is happy to have hosted the meeting of Vancouver’s cosmologists, and looks forward to more collaboration and discussion in the field.
-- by Aaron Lao, Communications Assistant