During the period since the last newsletter, a major milestone for the ISAC-II program was successfully passed: the acceleration of a heavy ion beam by one medium beta cavity module. This is a significant milestone since the ISAC-II accelerator is based on a technology that is new for TRIUMF, i.e., superconducting RF cavities. Congratulations to Bob Laxdal and his team for this success. ISAC’s next milestone will be to have several of these accelerator sections ready by the end of the year; this will enable some experiments to run soon after the end of TRIUMF’s usual winter maintenance shutdown period.
Research using muons is a very significant part of TRIUMF’s scientific portfolio. It is therefore very pleasing to acknowledge the work of Professor Uemura and to congratulate him on the award of the Yamazaki Prize from the International Society for µSR Spectroscopy. Jess Brewer and Syd Kreitzman, who have both championed the µSR program over many years, describe in this issue of the newsletter some aspects of TRIUMF’s µSR program.
For any scientific endeavor, theory and experiment must go hand in hand. As the ISAC experimental program evolves so also will a complementary theoretical program. Achim Schwenk is an international expert on many body systems and it is a great pleasure to announce that Achim will join TRIUMF’s theoretical team as a staff member. Achim’s work has the potential to illuminate many areas ranging from exotic nuclei to neutron stars.
Young people become associated with TRIUMF is various ways, one of which is the annual Summer Institute. This year’s theme was atom and ion traps – a theme that complements TRIUMF’s TITAN program. It was a highly successful institute that attracted one of the largest numbers of young participants in recent years.
As I reported in the last newsletter, the NSERC Synergy award money will be used to create scholarships to support life science students. It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Suzy Lapi for being the first student to receive such an award.•
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