Backgrounder
Dr. Arthur B. McDonald

Arthur B. McDonald is a native of Sydney, Nova Scotia. He graduated from Dalhousie University
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1964 with a B.Sc. (Hon. Physics) and 1965 with a M.Sc. (Physics).

He continued his studies at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, graduating in 1969
with a PhD in Nuclear Physics.

From 1969 until 1981 he worked at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories of Atomic Energy of
Canada, performing fundamental nuclear and particle physics experiments with accelerators
and reactors. In 1981 he accepted a Professorship in the Physics Department at Princeton
University and continued his research program there as co-principal investigator of the
Princeton Cyclotron.

In 1989, he moved to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, as Professor of Physics and
Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO).

In 2002, he was awarded a University Research Chair at Queen’s University and in 2006 became
the Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics.

In 2013 he became an emeritus professor, but he continues to conduct research, leading further
analysis of the data from all phases of the SNO experiment and participating in the DEAP and
SNO+ experiments.

Dr. McDonald is an Officer of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, as well as a Fellow
of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Canada, and the Royal Society.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bonner Prize from the American Physical
Society (2003); the Canadian Association of Physicists Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Physics
(2003); the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering (2003); Bruno
Pontecorvo Prize in Particle Physics (2005); co-recipient Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics
(2007) and the Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize from the European Physical Society (2013).
Queen’s University

Queen’s University is a member of the U15 group of Canadian research universities.

One of Canada’s oldest universities, Queen’s is also one of the country’s most researchintensive, ranking sixth in the country in terms of research income per full time faculty member.

Queen’s has 19 research centres that generate cutting-edge research in a variety of fields.

Queen’s holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Particle Astrophysics. The university also
holds 49 Canada Research Chairs.

As a member of the international Matariki Network, Queen’s is committed to strong links
between research and undergraduate teaching, a rich learning environment, and social and
global responsibility.
SNOLAB

SNOLAB is an underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. It
is located two kilometres below the surface in the Vale Creighton Mine near Sudbury, Ont.

SNOLAB is an international, unique and collaborative facility. Oversight and governance of the
SNOLAB facility and its operational management is through the SNOLAB Institute Board of
Management, whose member institutions are Carleton University, Laurentian University,
Queen’s University, the University of Alberta and the Universite de Montreal.

Faculty at these institutions are fully active participants in the research program at the SNOLAB
facility, along with external and international members from both academic and industrial
sectors.

SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities constructed for the Sudbury Neutrino
Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment that was created in the 1990s by a consortium of
Canadian, US and UK institutions, including Queen’s University. Its purpose was to solve a
decades-old scientific mystery called “the solar neutrino problem.”

The SNO team, led by Dr. McDonald, published its first results in 2001. The researchers
demonstrated that neutrinos have a barely detectable mass and that oscillate between flavours
once they leave the sun.

Dr. McDonald and the SNO team from Carleton, Laurentian, UBC, Alberta, Guelph, Queen’s and
institutions in the US, UK, Portugal and Germany have received numerous honours and awards
for their contributions to the scientific community. In 2006, the SNO team received the
inaugural NSERC John C. Polanyi Award for scientific achievement.