News Release

Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute launches

McDonald Institute marks a new era in Canadian astroparticle physics research

Business Announcement

CIFAR

A national astroparticle physics research network honoring Nobel laureate and CIFAR Associate Fellow Arthur B. McDonald was launched today in Kingston, Ont.

The new Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute is a partnership of eight universities and five affiliated research organizations, including CIFAR. Headquartered at Queen's University, the institute came to fruition as a result of the $63.7 million investment in 2016 from the Government of Canada's Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

The McDonald Institute will foster a world-leading astroparticle physics ecosystem and build on Canada's research expertise in the area. McDonald is a leader in this community whose scientific achievements span decades, including the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass."

"Art McDonald's research is truly emblematic of how Canada leads on the global stage. CIFAR is proud to partner with the McDonald Institute and build on his legacy," said John Hepburn, Vice-President, Research at CIFAR.

CIFAR has played an important role in supporting Canadian astroparticle physics researchers by connecting them to the broader scientific community in Canada and across the globe.

The Gravity & the Extreme Universe program, founded in 1986, is CIFAR's longest running program to date. It brings together world-leading theorists and experimentalists from diverse but inter-related fields. McDonald, currently an Associate Fellow, has been involved with CIFAR for more than 20 years, previously as an advisory committee chair and as a member of the Research Council. Mark Chen, Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics, is a Senior Fellow in the program who has been involved with CIFAR since he joined Queen's University in 2000.

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