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Rituparna Kanungo awarded 2018 CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal

18 May 2018

TRIUMF is pleased to share that TRIUMF affiliate scientist and Saint Mary’s University faculty member Dr. Rituparna Kanungo has been awarded the 2018 CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal for contributions to subatomic physics and her leadership and contribution to the field of direct reaction and halo-nuclei studies with rare isotopes. Kanungo, who leads a Saint Mary’s University experimental subatomic physics research group, is a distinguished and long-standing member of the TRIUMF community.

While Kanungo and her group have conducted research at several accelerator centres around the world (including GSI and RIKEN), her contributions at TRIUMF have been especially impactful. Upon joining the TRIUMF community, Kanungo spearheaded a program investigating low-energy nuclear reactions to uncover characteristics of rare isotopes. She went on to develop and lead TRIUMF’s IRIS facility, pioneering precise measurements observing the decades-old predicted excitation mode of halo oscillation and unlocking a sensitive way to constrain the force from the scattering diffraction pattern. Among her other endeavours, Kanungo has also shouldered project leadership of the Canadian Rare Isotope Beam (CANREB) facility, a Saint Mary’s-led, CFI-funded project that will produce high-purity radioactive beams for medical isotope production and a variety of ARIEL-enabled research efforts.

"I feel highly honoured receiving this prestigious recognition, which I would like to share with my collaborators,” said Kanungo. “Canada’s world-leading subatomic physics facilities attracted me here, thanks to the pioneering efforts by Erich Vogt. I feel fortunate with the support I received, and want to thank the physics community and Canada for valuing my contributions."

“Kanungo is a bright star in the nuclear physics community,” added fellow 2018 CAP award winner Jean-Michel Poutissou. “Her dedication to her work has been instrumental in launching the TRIUMF isotope science program onto the world stage.”

The TRIUMF community is thrilled to join CAP in recognizing and celebrating Kanungo’s many achievements – as well as those of other 2018 CAP medal recipients.

The full Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) press release can be found here.

With notes from the CAP press release