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McGill Becomes a Full Member of TRIUMF, Canada’s National Particle Accelerator

Published: 6 March 2023

McGill has become a Full Member of the expanded network of TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle accelerator. McGill has been involved in TRIUMF-led activities for several decades and has held associate membership since 2013.

TRIUMF constructed parts of the Large Hadron Collider that ultimately produced Higgs bosons. The co-discovery was made by the ATLAS experiment, and McGill played a key role in the development of the experiment's trigger system.

“McGill’s decades-long collaboration with TRIUMF has resulted in research at the cutting edge of modern physics, including through the ATLAS experiment,” said Martha Crago, Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation. “McGill is proud to join TRIUMF’s engaged group of university members across Canada, with whom we share commitments to fundamental research and technological advancement.” 

Several researchers in McGill’s Faculty of Science are actively involved in projects at TRIUMF including the ATLAS experiment and upgrades (Professors François Corriveau, Brigitte Vachon, and Andreas Warburton), the Belle-II experiment (Professor Andreas Warburton), the ISAC projects (Professors Thomas Brunner and Fritz Buchinger), the nEXO experiment (Professor Thomas Brunner), as well as the LISA project (Professor Daryl Haggard) with the enthusiastic participation of their groups’ highly qualified personnel. These projects seek to answer important and fundamental questions as, “What is the matter ultimately made of?”, “What is the nature of new physics beyond the Standard Model?”, “What are the properties of exotic nuclei?” and “How do we use the gravitational wave to study the Universe?”

"The facilities and scientific infrastructure at the TRIUMF particle accelerator centre enable scientists across Canada to pursue some of today's most urgent and exciting research questions," said Bruce Lennox, Dean of Science. "We are pleased that McGill is now a full member of this preeminent Canadian laboratory and very proud of our McGill researchers who play central roles in many collaborative projects at TRIUMF."

Recently, TRIUMF underwent changes to its organizational structure to improve efficiency and clarify accountability across the laboratory’s various stakeholders. Now, with a fortified network of 21 member institutions spanning coast-to-coast, TRIUMF is well-positioned to achieve the goals laid out in its recently published 20-Year Vision.

“Our member universities recognize the many unique advantages of our world-leading research infrastructure and multidisciplinary science programs – but also that TRIUMF is accessible to and engaged with Canada's top academic institutions, large and small, in a manner that amplifies the impact of each here in Canada and abroad,” said TRIUMF Director, Dr. Nigel Smith. “With our new governance structure and our member university community fully engaged, TRIUMF is well-positioned to fulfill our ambitious 20-Year Vision, which see us continuing to lead as one of Canada’s largest and most impactful fundamental research facilities.”

Click here to read the TRIUMF web story.

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