Last Thursday, the TRIUMF community paused for a moment to celebrate one of its own: Jean-Michel Poutissou on the occasion of his full retirement from the laboratory effective April 1, 2012.
With more than 50 people attending from four different countries (Japan, Canada, U.S., and France), TRIUMF held a Scientific Symposium in honour of Jean-Michel who has served TRIUMF in many different capacities over the years. The invited speakers shared some colourful stories from the past, discussed the key science experiments in which Jean-Michel was involved, and then provided a prospective view on where these areas of research might head next. Director emeritus Alan Astbury from the University of Victoria served as the programme chair. Doug Bryman from UBC spoke about early rare-decay experiments at TRIUMF. Stewart Smith from Princeton talked about the "needle in a haystack" experiment that Jean-Michel and TRIUMF participated in at Brookhaven. Glen Marshall from TRIUMF talked about the TWIST experiment at the lab examining parameters of the muon. Shoji Nagamiya from J-PARC in Japan spoke about neutrino experiments and the strong Canadian participation, championed by Jean-Michel. Finally, Francois Benard from the BC Cancer Agency spoke about molecular imaging using medical isotopes from TRIUMF.
At the end, Jean-Michel said a few words to thank everyone for their participation, as well the privilege of having them as colleagues, friends, and family. He reminded everyone that he wasn't leaving TRIUMF; he might just wait an extra day before replying to e-mail.
About Jean-Michel Poutissou
After completing his undergraduate education in France, Jean-Michel Poutissou came to the Université de Montréal to complete his training. He received his PhD in 1972. Jean-Michel continued at the Université de Montréal as a post-doctoral fellow until 1974 when he came to the University of British Columbia for a one-year appointment as a teaching assistant. He returned to the Université de Montréal as a research assistant during the years 1974-78. His first appointment at TRIUMF was in 1978 as a Research Scientist. In 1988 Jean-Michel was appointed Head of the Science Division and Associate Director of TRIUMF. He held these positions until 2009 when he took up heading the Nuclear Medicine Division after its creation within TRIUMF.
Jean-Michel is one of the founding members of the T2K project, even before the J-PARC accelerator was funded. He was one of the members who developed the idea of the "off-axis neutrino beam", which is a key and successful idea of the project. Aside from his scientific contributions, Jean-Michel has provided a vital role in the organization of the T2K collaboration, as a member of the Executive Committee (EC) of T2K and the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of J-PARC. He introduced the International Funding Oversight Panel, a body of international funding agencies supporting the T2K project. Lately, Jean-Michel serves as the Chair of the IAC.
-- by T.I. Meyer, TRIUMF's Head of Strategic Planning and Communication