On Tuesday, January 8, 2013, Canada's first astronaut Marc Garneau visited TRIUMF. A Member of Parliament elected from the Westmount-Ville-Marie riding in Montreal, Dr. Garneau is a former president of the Canadian Space Agency and former Chancellor of Carleton University, a full member of the TRIUMF consortium. He has also served in Canada's Royal Navy and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
During his visit to Vancouver, Dr. Garneau stopped by TRIUMF for two hours to meet with the laboratory and take a tour to witness some of the progress since his last visit in 2009. He met with the leadership team including Nigel Lockyer, Remy Dawson, Lia Merminga, Paul Schaffer, Jim Hanlon, Henry Chen, Anne Trudel, Tim Meyer, and TRIUMF scientists and staff Jens Dilling, Isabel Trigger, Sonia Bacca, Chris Ruiz, Aurelia Laxdal, Mike Trinczek, Curtis Ballard, and Conny Hoehr. After a round of introductions, it turned out that many TRIUMF staff have connections to Motnreal and Westmont (Trudel, Hanlon, Chen) as well as McGill University (Trigger).
Along the tour route, Dr. Garneau visited the Electron Hall where the e-linac wil be installed as part of ARIEL, expanding TRIUMF's capabilities for producing isotopes for science and medicine. He also saw DRAGON and TITAN in ISAC-I and learned about the recent progress using neutron-rich isotopes from actinide targets and then visited ISAC-II where he saw TIGRESS, the ISAC-II accelerator, and the VECC test area representing TRIUMF's close collaboration with India.
After the tour, Dr. Garneau stopped at the Hot Spot Cafe. With a few TRIUMF colleagues, he talked about the history of the Canadian Space Agency and the value of international partnerships. He described Canada's decision process for choosing not to develop a domestic space-launch capability and instead to work with partners in the U.S., Europe, and Russia to achieve these objectives. He talked about the value of Canada choosing where to compete and where to collaborate in large-scale science. Dr. Garneau also referred to his recent role as a "Master of Ceremonies" for a ham-radio uplink from science students in Halifax to his comrade Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station. Sometimes the old-fashioned technology is the most reliable!
Completing his visit, Dr. Garneau thanked TRIUMF for the visit and tour, appreciating the time everyone had set aside during the busy shutdown period to meet with him. He wished TRIUMF the best for 2013 and congratulated the lab on its accomplishments so far.
From the TRIUMF side, thank you for visiting, Dr. Garneau, and thank you to everyone at TRIUMF that made the meet and greet work seamlessly!
-- by T.I. Meyer, TRIUMF's Head of Strategic Planning & Communication