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CHRIS ORAM

Co-leader, ARIEL Project

Chris Oram
Chris came to TRIUMF in 1974, having completed a B.Sc. in physics at the University of London. He went on to receive a Ph.D. from Queen Mary College in 1977. Chris is an expert in the planning, construction, and commissioning of large-scale particle physics detectors. He finds such huge projects fascinating; both for the engineering challenges they present and for the elementary questions of physics they are designed to address. From 1998 to 2004, he oversaw the design, assembly, and calibration of the hadronic end-cap calorimeter for the ATLAS detector in Geneva. Thirteen different institutes worked together on this $10M project, which was completed on-schedule and under-budget. In 2004, Chris was elected Chair of the ATLAS Collaboration Board; as such, he is responsible for coordinating the 167 member institutions from 37 different countries that contribute to the ATLAS project.

Chris has been working to support TRIUMF as an institution and helping to create a future for the laboratory with significant involvement in formulating the Five-Year Plan for 2010-2015. He has been appointed Co-leader of the ARIEL project, with Dr. Lia Merminga. ARIEL will substantially expand TRIUMF's rare-isotope beam capabilities, and will open a new era for Canada in this field.

In his spare time, Chris enjoys bicycle touring; he and his wife have cycled from Bangkok to Paris, a journey that took almost a year to complete. An account of his travels can be found here.