The March to the Nobel Prize: the Story of SNO

A talk by Clarence Virtue
Professor of Physics, Laurentian University

Thursday, Nov. 24, 3:30 p.m.
Neatby-Timlin Theatre (Arts 241)

At 6 a.m. on October 6th, 2015, my clock radio turned on and literally the first words were "the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Arthur B. McDonald". Professor McDonald, of Queen's University, a longtime friend and colleague, shared the Prize with Takaaki Kajita of Japan for "the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass". What a way to wake up! The story of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a great Canadian science story. It is my pleasure to share the story, on behalf of Professor McDonald and more than 200 SNO collaborators. It starts with a mystery or puzzle...the Solar Neutrino Problem; an ingenious idea that can only be practically done in Canada; a great deal of challenging work; and a definitive result in 2001 that led to the Nobel recognition.

Clarence Virtue received his PhD in physics from UBC on the topic of "Photon Asymmetry in Radiative Muon Capture on 40Ca". He was a postdoctoral fellow with the NRC Canada High Energy Physics Section and was posted to CERN from 1987-1992 where he worked on the OPAL experiment.  Currently, he is Professor of Physics at Laurentian University, working on SNO+, HALO, HALO-1kT, and COHERENT.  In his spare time, he enjoys canoe tripping and sprint kayaking.

For more info, please contact Steven Rayan at rayan@math.usask.ca or Yansun Yao at yansun@usask.ca

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