On November 9th, 2010, Simon Fraser University President Andrew Petter made his first visit to TRIUMF. SFU is part of the consortium of 16 universities that own and operate TRIUMF.
Prof. Petter was once the dean of the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law, and brings with him a background in political science and a decade of experience as an MLA. Prof. Petter also held various Cabinet minister positions in that time period, and spent three years as Minister of Advanced Education, Training and Technology. TRIUMF Director Nigel Lockyer and Division Heads Gordon Ball, Remy Dawson, Lia Merminga, and Jean-Michel Poutissou greeted Prof. Petter, and Nigel made a short presentation on the work TRIUMF does.
Following Nigel’s presentation, Prof. Petter had a chance to meet researchers at TRIUMF who are SFU faculty or adjunct professors. Mike Vetterli, spoke on the work at the Tier-1 Centre and Particle Physics. Jeff Sonier and Gerald Morris talked about the Materials Science program and μSR. Paul Schaffer talked about the Nuclear Medicine program, which produces medical isotopes and conducts research on Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Richard Woloshyn talked about the TRIUMF Theory Group, and Corina Andreoiu talked about Nuclear Physics at TRIUMF.
Several SFU students were present to mingle with Prof. Petter and share how their work at TRIUMF is contributing to their education at SFU and vice versa. Naomi Galinski, a PhD student, spoke on the group’s behalf. SFU students work in many different departments at TRIUMF, such as administration, communications, or researching as graduate students. Sometimes students come to TRIUMF as a part of the SFU Co-operative Education program, which connects students with employers in positions related to their studies, for terms in between classes.
After the round of discussions, Prof. Petter was led on a tour through the labs with Nigel Lockyer and Tim Meyer, TRIUMF’s Head of Strategic Planning and Communications. They showed Prof. Petter through μSR, the TR-13 cyclotron, EMMA at ISAC-II, the ATLAS Tier-1 Centre, and DRAGON at ISAC-I. Before leaving, Prof. Petter sat down with some of the Division Heads, as well as Jim Hanlon, TRIUMF’s Head of HR and Administration, and Shirley Reeve, TRIUMF’s Chief Financial Officer.
TRIUMF welcomes Professor Petter to the helm of SFU, who took the position at the beginning of September 2010. TRIUMF looks forward to working with him to continue the intimate partnership with SFU that has existed since TRIUMF’s founding in 1968, just three years after SFU held its first opening ceremonies in September 1965.
- Jessica Coccimiglio, Communications Assistant, who is on a Co-op work-term at TRIUMF from her studies at SFU