TRIUMF - An Overview

What is TRIUMF?

TRIUMF is Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located on The University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Owned and operated as a joint venture by a consortium of Canadian universities via a contribution through the National Research Council Canada (NRC), TRIUMF's facilities are available to Canadian scientists and to scientists from around the world. Many Canadian university scientists collaborate in multi-institutional groups, which in turn collaborate with international groups to mount large-scale projects at TRIUMF and at national laboratories in Europe, the United States, and Japan. TRIUMF provides the technological and scientific infrastructure to ensure these Canadian collaborations are capable and ready to participate on the world stage.

The chart above shows the international links TRIUMF has around the world.

Science Reach

TRIUMF is Canada's primary centre for subatomic physics research. Subatomic physics investigates the properties of fundamental microscopic particles that comprise the nature of matter in the universe and the nuclear processes that take place in stars that determine not only their evolution but also the evolution of the universe. TRIUMF's subatomic physics research is also used to benefit other scientific research carried out at TRIUMF. For example, the facility supports a diverse program of experimental research in molecular and materials sciences, which help us understand the structure of new materials so essential for future technologies. The TRIUMF Life Sciences group is involved in collaborations with health research and treatment centres across Canada. These collaborations include one with The University of British Columbia, which uses Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to study neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and the BC Cancer Agency for which TRIUMF produces fluorine-18 for patient diagnostics and treatments.

Benefits to Canada

The internationally recognized excellence of TRIUMF and its collaborations world-wide substantially contributes to Canada's image as a scientifically and technologically advanced nation. TRIUMF provides an essential scientific and technical resource base to about 1000 users world wide. The needs of the scientific program are often very demanding, and new engineering and technical processes are constantly being developed. This environment provides a very exciting and inspiring training ground for young Canadians. Over one hundred young scientists and engineers train at TRIUMF every year.

Technology Transfer

Another important part of TRIUMF's mission is the transfer of technology, where appropriate or possible, to the Canadian commercial sector. The Technology Transfer Division pursues the commercial opportunities that emanate from TRIUMF's research. The Division's success is exemplified by a recent technology licensing survey undertaken by the Association of University Technology Managers of North America, which compared the commercial transfer of scientific knowledge to actual commercial output. This survey ranked TRIUMF the second highest in Canada. TRIUMF was a co-recipient with MDS Nordion of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's (NSERC) 2004 Synergy Award in recognition of its outstanding University - Industry Research and Development collaboration.

TRIUMF's technology has contributed to commercial interests as diverse as forestry, aerospace electronics, agriculture, environmental issues, advanced machinery, medical engineering and radioisotope production. In particular, TRIUMF has a long-standing association with MDS Nordion for the production, at the TRIUMF site in Vancouver, of radioisotopes for medical diagnosis and therapy. Each week, over 45,000 patient procedures are undertaken, primarily in North America, with the radioisotopes produced at TRIUMF. Canada's only ocular melanoma proton irradiation facility is operated by TRIUMF and administered by the BC Cancer Agency.

Outreach

TRIUMF's public outreach program touches the lives of almost two thousand people each year through its Saturday Morning Lecture Series, facility tours, and multimedia education tools. Academic outreach includes the High-School Fellowship Program (in conjunction with the BC Innovation Council), the Undergraduate Student Employment Program, as well as the popular Teacher Internship Program and Professional Development Day for Teachers. School children, teachers, undergraduates, and the public alike are excited by TRIUMF's unique science and technology and how it represents Canada to the world.

Accountability

Monitoring the laboratory's performance is a joint responsibility of the Agency Committee on TRIUMF (ACT), represented by Industry Canada, NSERC, and the NRC. In addition, the Advisory Committee on TRIUMF (ACOT), a panel of renowned international scientists, monitors the scientific performance of the laboratory through biannual meetings held at TRIUMF. Financial and administrative responsibilities for the laboratory lie with the universities under a Contribution Agreement with NRC. Once during each five-year funding period, NRC appoints an international peer review committee to review TRIUMF's scientific performance and evaluate its proposals for the next five-year plan.

Current Funding Cycle 2005 - 2010

For the period 2005-2010, TRIUMF's activities are financed by a federal contribution of $222.3M. These funds support the diverse scientific activities of the TRIUMF laboratory, both in Canada and abroad. Additional funding has been provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF), through a consortium of Canadian Universities, for the construction and operation of an ATLAS Tier 1 Data Centre. This computing centre will allow Canadian scientists to exploit the scientific possibilities provided by Canada's investment in ATLAS and the LHC at CERN as well as provide opportunities for Canada to exploit the computing advances that will evolve from work of the Data Centre. CFI and BCKDF have also provided funding through two other consortiums of Canadian Universities for a Laboratory for Advanced Detector Development (LADD) and an upgrade to the TRIUMF M20 µSR Beam line. Experiments are selected by international evaluation panels and are funded through peer-reviewed competitions by national funding agencies. In Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Research, etc., provide university researchers with funding to mount their experimental programs at TRIUMF.

e Canadian scientific community has a plan and funding in place for TRIUMF's activities over the period 2005 - 2010. The main features of this plan are to complete the ISAC facility to ensure that it is firmly established as a world-class facility, and to make leading Canadian contributions to some of the most exciting projects in other national laboratories around the world. For example, the current five-year plan identifies TRIUMF as the Canadian centre for the Atlas Tier 1 Centre, a world computing grid network that will handle the vast data outflow from CERN. The plan also identifies leading Canadian contributions to an experiment in Japan, which is a natural extension of the highly successful and visible Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment (SNO), located in Sudbury, Ontario.