TRIUMF is pleased to announce the addition of McMaster University to its roster of full member universities, effective July 1, 2018.
Since joining TRIUMF as an associate member in 2001, McMaster has made key contributions to a variety of research initiatives.
One critical area of collaboration between the two organizations is within the life sciences sector, specifically in the cyclotron-based production of medical imaging isotopes.
Following a medical isotope shortage that began in 2007, scientists in TRIUMF’s Life Sciences Division and McMaster’s Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization, in collaboration with colleagues at BC Cancer, the University of British Columbia, and Lawson Health Research Institute at Western University, developed a new technology that allows local teams to use existing medical cyclotrons in hospitals to produce critical diagnostic isotopes. In 2015, the team was awarded the NSERC Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering – a distinction that honours successful collaborations between scientists in engineering and the natural sciences. The group’s efforts led to the successful commercialization of the technology with the formation of ARTMS, a company that develops novel technologies that enable the production of the world’s most-used diagnostic imaging isotopes.
The TRIUMF-McMaster relationship also includes long-standing collaboration on TRIUMF-based DRAGON and TUDA experiments, which study explosive nucleosynthesis and element formation. McMaster is an active member of the EMMA collaboration, and McMaster scientists are among the core users at TRIUMF’s Center for Molecular and Materials Science.
In addition, TRIUMF is an affiliate partner of McMaster’s Origins Institute, a multifaceted research and education centre that supports the exploration of some of the most fundamental questions in science.
“We are very pleased to deepen our strong relationship with McMaster,” says TRIUMF Director Dr. Jonathan Bagger. “The University brings to TRIUMF world-class expertise and a track record of excellence, and we look forward to continued collaboration and shared success in the future.”
The TRIUMF community would like to extend a warm welcome to McMaster University as our newest full member university. Welcome, McMaster!