BY KEITH LACEY
More than 20 years after the idea to trace neutrinos—one of the building blocks of the universe—was first conceptualized, the accolades and awards keep pouring in at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO).
On Wednesday, research scientists and staff at SNO gathered at Science North to receive the inaugural John C. Polanyi Prize, offered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.
Doug Hallman, Clarence Virtue and Jacques Farine were singled out as award winners. A research grant of $250,000 is included as a part of the award.
The world-class science project proved neutrinos, elusive particles emitted from the sun and remote exploding stars, do possess mass and can travel long distances.
The underground SNO detector took eight years to construct more than 6,000 feet below ground at Creighton Mine and for the past seven years, scientists have been collecting data about the properties of neutrinos and neutrino emission from the sun.
Neutrino measurements using heavy water donated by Atomic Energy Limited Canada will be completed by the end of December.
An SNO team of research scientists from 16 different universities and research laboratories in Canada, the United States and Britain have used the SNO detector to record and analyze about 25,000 neutrino signals, providing a precise determination of the numbers and types of neutrinos that exist.
Hallman, SNO’s director of communications, staff scientist and physics professor at Laurentian University, said winning this prestigious award was a team effort.
“It’s very gratifying to be recognized and a lot of people deserve to share in this award,” he said.
While the experimentation with heavy water is over and the original intent of the SNO project has been completed, there’s much more good work to do, said Hallman.
The original SNOLAB, located above-ground outside the Creighton Mine site, has expanded and will be almost double its original size when construction is completed next spring and the SNO detector is being refurbished to allow for more groundbreaking experiments.
The $250,000 award handed out to staff scientists will be used to continue scientific work and also to get more graduate students involved in SNO projects.
Hallman admits no one could have predicted 20 years ago the SNO experiment would be so successful.
A lot of good ideas were thrown around, but the idea of using heavy water to try to detect neutrinos was a winner from the beginning, he said.
“It was cutting edge then and still is now,” he said.
The fact the federal government and many scientific agencies were willing to provide the funding and some of the expertise over the past two decades must also be applauded, he said.
A total of 16 different scientific experiments are being considered by a peer review panel to find ways to continue using the SNO detector and a decision on the next phase should be made by early spring, said Hallman.
Suzanne Fortier, president of NSERC, said the scientific community around the world has long recognized the importance of the SNO project and choosing SNO staff for the inaugural Polanyi award was not a difficult decision.
“This project has been recognized as one of the most important scientific achievements in recent years...it has been recognized around the world as a major, major breakthrough in science,” she said.
“We’re very, very proud of these people who are being honoured today.”
John Polanyi, who attended the award ceremony, is a faculty member in the department of chemistry at the University of Toronto. His research is on the molecular motions in chemical reactions in gases and at surfaces. He has won many awards for his research include the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry. He has honorary degrees from universities in more than 30 countries.