Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics
Laboratoire national canadien pour la recherche en physique nucléaire
et en physique des particules
Canadian Subatomic
Physics & TRIUMF
InterAction Collaboration Meeting | 9-11 May 2012 | Vancouver
T.I. Meyer | Head, Strategic Planning & Communication | TRIUMF
Accelerating Science for Canada
Un accélérateur de la démarche scientifique canadienne
Owned and operated as a joint venture by a consortium of Canadian universities via a contribution through the National Research Council Canada
Propriété d’un consortium d’universités canadiennes, géré en co-entreprise à partir d’une contribution administrée par le Conseil national de recherches Canada
Canadian Subatomic Physics
11 May 2012
2
Primer on Canada
• Particle & nuclear physics called “subatomic physics”
– Many Canadian physicists think this is clear and enlightening
• Subatomic-physics research is supported by
– NSERC (Canadian NSF)
– CFI (relatively new agency aimed at medium to large-scale
infrastructure)
– Assorted provincial governments
• Subatomic-physics research is performed by
–
–
–
–
–
NRC (perhaps similar to U.S. DOE)
TRIUMF
SNOLAB
Perimeter Institute
Universities
11 May 2012
3
What’s on our minds?
•
The Canadian subatomic physics community will face
key decisions in the 2011-2016 period that will
determine the physics priorities beyond 2016.
– What project at the energy frontier will become our
next priority when the definitive results from ATLAS
are published?
– How will Canada exploit the physics potential of
TRIUMF’s Advanced Rare IsotopE Laboratory
(ARIEL) to maintain our leadership in radioactive
beam physics?
– Could an upgrade to T2K provide insight into the
dominance of matter over antimatter in our
universe?
– Will the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) adopt
Canadian technology and look to be situated at
SNOLAB?
– Will the subatomic physics community have the
resources at its disposal to perform the R&D
required for any/all of these opportunities?
11 May 2012
4
TRIUMF
11 May 2012
5
TRIUMF: A National Science Laboratory
Members
Associate Members
University of Alberta
University of BC
Carleton University
University of Guelph
University of Manitoba
Université de Montréal
Queen’s University
Simon Fraser University
University of Toronto
University of Victoria
York University
University of Calgary
McMaster University
University of Northern BC
University of Regina
Saint Mary’s University
University of Winnipeg
Research focus:
• Advancing isotopes for science & medicine
• Probing the structure & origins of matter
TRIUMF is owned & operated by a consortium of 17 universities
Founded 43 years ago in Vancouver
26 March 2012
6
Federal & Provincial Support
• TRIUMF’s core activities are supported
through five-year operating grants from
Govm’t of Canada
– Annual core operating budget ~ $45M
– Associated funding from tri-council agencies and
CFI adds another ~ $25M per year
• Province of British Columbia provides
funding for capital initiatives such as
buildings
• Small stream of commercial revenue
11 May 2012
7
Isotopes for Medicine
11 May 2012
8
Where do isotopes come from?
• Many unstable isotopes occur naturally
– Decay products from other isotopes made in stars,
supernovae, etc.
• These can be extracted from ore, sea water, air…
• Two problems:
– Finding and separating isotopes can be difficult
– Most naturally occurring radioisotopes are long-lived
• Isotopes are therefore often made-to-order
21 March 2012
9
How do you make isotopes to order?
• Building them up from bare neutrons and
protons is not feasible
• Instead, we rely on nuclear reactions to modify
existing nuclei
– Bombard target materials with other particles
– Neutrons, protons, electrons/photons
– Or even heavy ions (e.g., other isotopes)
21 March 2012
10
What are medical isotopes?
• “Medical isotope” is a misleading term
– What is actually used are radiotracers /
radiopharmaceuticals that incorporate a radioactive form of
an atom (i.e., radioisotope)
• These isotopes lend themselves to medical use
– They’re short-lived so they decay within the body
– The decay either emits a signal detector outside the body
OR can be used to deliver targeted radiation dose
– They have “chemistry” that enables them to be connected
to biological molecules and then used to track those
molecules within the body
11 May 2012
11
Many applications (including therapy)
Diagnosing brain
disorders
Treating thyroid
cancer
Molybdenum-99**
Iodine-131
Diagnosing heart
attacks and
disease
Exposing the
spread of cancer
Molybdenum-99
Molybdenum-99
Scanning bones
for infection
Imaging lungs for
blood clots
Molybdenum-99
Xenon-133
11 May 2012
12
Isotopes for Oncology
Imaging with isotopes is a very powerful indicator of
cancer metabolism. Response to therapy can be seen
within 24 hours.
Baseline
24 hours
1 week
2 months
5.5 months
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
11 May 2012
13
Disassembling biology
21 March 2012
14
Isotopes for Science
11 May 2012
15
We are all made of star dust
The earth and every living
thing are made of star stuff.
--Carl Sagan
In order to make an apple
pie from scratch, you must
first invent the universe.
11 May 2012
16
The origin of the elements
Big Bang
( Hydrogen, Helium, ~Lithium)
Stellar burning
( Carbon, Oxygen,…, Silicon,…, Iron)
Stellar explosions (Novae, Supernovae)
( Copper, Silver, Gold, Lead, …)
11 May 2012
17
Nuclear Astrophysics
• Exotic nuclear isotopes formed in stars drive
– Pathways to create the chemical elements
– Tremendous release of energy in supernovae
Astrophysics
Astronomy
Observations
Modeling
Laboratory
Experiments
Nuclear Physics
11 May 2012
18
ARIEL
The primary mission of ARIEL is to deliver unprecedented
intensities of rare, short-lived exotic isotopes, and in particular
those with extreme neutron excess, to simultaneous and
multiple experiments, at the existing and world-leading ISAC
accelerator complex.
A secondary mission of ARIEL is to anticipate future uses of elinac technologies such as free electron lasers, and including
commercial uses such as the production of medical isotopes
by photo-fission.
11 May 2012
19
ARIEL Project – Master Plan
ISAC II
 expand RIB program with:
• three simultaneous beams
• increased number of
hours delivered per year
• new beam species
• enable long beam times
New
Accelerators
New
Front End
ISAC I
New Mass
Separators
e-linac
• increased beam
development capabilities
New
Targets
11 May 2012
(nucl. astro, fund. symm.)
 New electron linac driver
for photo-fission
 New proton beamline
 New target stations and
front end
Cyclotron
 staged installation
20
Communications @ TRIUMF
11 May 2012
21
Our team
• “Strategic Planning & Communication Office”
– Communications, education & outreach, scientific
conferences (logistics & proceedings), media
relations, web & social media, community relations,
external/international relations, some A/V services,
government relations, and strategic planning
– That is, we (are lucky to) serve at the “left hand” of the
lab director
• Staff
– 4.75 FTEs + 2 rotating undergraduate students
– Good will of all our colleagues
11 May 2012
22
Progress
• World’s most popular medical isotope is technetium-99m
(Tc-99m)
– 30 million medical procedures per year, world-wide
– 80% produced at two reactors (Canada, Netherlands)
• Ageing
• Rely on highly-enriched uranium for target material
• Canada, and other govm’ts, interested in alternatives
– TRIUMF led team to develop “upgrade kit” for existing medical
cyclotrons
– Announced in Feb 2012 at AAAS, we have successfully
demonstrated production at two sites on two different types of
machines
• Big question…now what?
11 May 2012
23
What keeps us up at night
• Many ideas, little time/people/resources
• Many partners, many chiefs
• Keeping comms relevant/related to lab
community
• Staying abreast of the science
– What happened and when
• Government relations
– Elevated profile = elevated scrutiny
• Metrics, performance measures
– Five-Year Plan 2015-2020 due in…late 2013
• Good espresso
11 May 2012
24
What gets us up in the morning
• Enhanced partnership with local science centre, Science
World for “K to gray” outreach programs
• TEDxTRIUMF event
• Artist in Residence programs
– Partnership with Emily Carr University of Art + Design
– “Raw Data” project with Emily Carr, Goethe Institut, DESY
•
•
•
•
•
•
Survey of Use of PET for Clinical Cancer Care in Cancer
Cartoons to illustrate web content
Defining an “international strategy”
CERN associate membership?
“Photographer of record” for ARIEL construction
We love the lab, we love the work
11 May 2012
25
99 Things…
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1c45_2Brbw
11 May 2012
26
Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics
Laboratoire national canadien pour la recherche en physique nucléaire
et en physique des particules
Merci
Thank You
Accelerating Science for Canada
Un accélérateur de la démarche scientifique canadienne
Owned and operated as a joint venture by a consortium of Canadian universities via a contribution through the National Research Council Canada
Propriété d’un consortium d’universités canadiennes, géré en co-entreprise à partir d’une contribution administrée par le Conseil national de recherches Canada
TRIUMF: Alberta | British Columbia |
Calgary | Carleton | Guelph | Manitoba |
McMaster | Montréal | Northern British
Columbia | Queen’s | Regina | Saint Mary’s |
Simon Fraser | Toronto | Victoria | Winnipeg |
York