Issue 06, March 20 2018
Greetings,

This edition of our newsletter is packed with new science, amazing events and golden opportunities, so be sure to read the whole thing for a bonus prize at the end!
In an effort to broaden our reach on LinkedIN and add value to the community, we invite you to connect with the McDonald Institute page in whatever way best represents your relationship to MI. As the McDonald Institute occupies a space of underlying support for all astroparticle physics in Canada, listing MI as an employer is encouraged. Thank you for your support!
Featured Physicist:
Marie-Cécile Piro
Anyone who has met Marie-Cécile knows just how passionate she is about her work. She is so genuinely excited about the challenges and potential rewards of her research. From a young age, Piro wanted to be an astronaut and go exploring in space. As it turns out, 2 km below Sudbury is a perfect place to explore the universe. Through her experiments at SNOLAB, Marie-Cécile is on the leading edge of dark matter research. With PICO, she is working on gas purification and reducing the background radiation levels of materials used in the detector, which will allow PICO to achieve unprecedented levels of sensitivity. With DEAP-3600, she is doing measurements to better understand the detector’s behaviour, and, in turn, what the signals coming from the detector mean. She is also part of the NEWS-G collaboration working on the radon mitigation and analysis for the future installation at SNOLAB in fall 2019.
At SNOLAB for the installation of the PICO experiment in November of 2018.
" I am intrigued by exploring physics beyond the standard model. I hope to achieve this by developing new detection technologies and pushing the limits of current technologies by improving detector performance, such as energy resolution and find novel techniques for reducing the background of the detectors. My goal is to find a way to by-pass the irreducible neutrino floor background, which all dark matter experiments will face in the near future."
Marie-Cécile Piro (middle) with award winning undergraduate students (from left to right) Tetiana Kozynets, Maximillian Müller, and Giovanna Luna Rosseto. and research associate Scott Fallows.

Marie-Cécile is currently working with Dr. Ken Clark on a new detector combining bubble-chamber and scintillation technology. A prototype of the Scintillating bubble chamber with argon/xenon mixture is planned to be built this year. The detector design and parts machining has already started. Visit SNOLAB's announcement of the CFI award for more details on this exciting experiment.

Federal government moves to stabilize CFI funding
Canadian Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan announced last week that the federal government has moved to stabilize funding for the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) over the long term.
 
"Today’s announcement of stable, long-term funding will help Canada continue to be an international destination for research and innovation,” Duncan said in a March 13 press release.
 
The federal minister pledged $763 million of new funding over the next five years and $462 million per year starting in 2023-24.
 
The CFI's funding programs, including the Major Science Initiative, Infrastructure Operating Fund, Leaders Opportunity Fund, act as the primary Canadian funding agency supporting essential research equipment and infrastructure in university labs and major research facilities. The foundation has been a vital partner in the growth of Canadian astroparticle physics research and the expansion of major facilities such as SNOLAB and TRIUMF.
 
A major federal review of Canadian science and technology R&D published in 2017 had recommended that the funding envelopes for CFI should be guaranteed over longer time-intervals to allow the scientific community and government founders to better plan and support long-term projects ( see Fundamental Science Review [“Naylor Report”] — http://www.sciencereview.ca/eic/site/059.nsf/eng/home).

Upcoming Events:
New Postdoctoral position available

Dr. Miriam Diamond at the University of Toronto is currently hiring for a Postdoctoral research position in Experimental Astroparticle Physics with SuperCDMS.

The Toronto group focuses on data acquisition, data quality monitoring, Monte Carlo detector simulation, and data analysis. With the opening of the Cryogenic Underground TEst (CUTE) facility to support detector development and characterization later this year and first operations of SuperCDMS SNOLAB expected in 2021, the successful applicant will have a significant shift-taking presence at SNOLAB. 

Call for abstracts: Lepton Photon Interactions

The 29th International Meeting on Lepton Photon Interactions will be held in downtown Toronto from August 5 to 10th. For the first time ever, this conference will include a series of parallel sessions as well as a poster session. 

Attendees will consist of members of the international particle physics community ranging from senior graduate students and postdocs to lab directors and other senior community leaders who attend international planning meetings held in conjunction with the conference. 

Submit an Abstract: https://indico.cern.ch/event/688643/abstracts/ , the submission deadline is April 15 .

Register: https://indico.cern.ch/event/688643/page/16142-link-to-registration , early-bird deadline is May 31 and regular deadline is July 31.

PhD students and participants with disabilities , as well as those with financial difficulty, may apply for a registration/accommodation grant: https://indico.cern.ch/event/688643/page/16135-travel-grants  .

More details on the meeting can be found at: https://indico.cern.ch/event/688643/ .
Thank You!

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