Media Release

For Immediate Release

July 29, 2009

Grants to physics professor boosts research funding at Saint Mary's

It's back to basics in a high tech way.

Dr. Adam Sarty, a physics professor at Saint Mary's University, is one of three collaborating physicists who recently received $420,000 in NSERC funding for physics research in Germany. He also received a $105,000 Discovery Grant from NSERC to continue his research in the United States.

The $420,000 funding from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) will help Dr. Sarty, Dr. David Hornidge (from Mount Allison University) and Dr. Garth Huber (from the University of Regina) spend the next three summers carrying out basic scientific research experiments at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI), an electron accelerator at Mainz University in Germany.

They will be joined in Germany by five students -- three of Dr. Hornidge's Mount Allison research students and two of Dr. Sarty's research students from Saint Mary’s (one undergraduate and one PhD student). Four of the students are recipients of prestigious Undergraduate Summer Research Awards from NSERC.

The additional $105,000 Discover Grant (over three years) for Dr. Sarty, will allow him to continue his research program at the Thomas Jefferson National Acceleratory Facility in Virginia. Specifically, it will allow Dr. Sarty to work with students to design and build new radiation-detector components for future use at the Jefferson Lab.

Dr. Sarty and Dr. Huber have spent the past decade performing experiments at the Jefferson Lab. The new grant money for the research in Germany will allow them to now spend part of their research time collaborating with Dr. Hornidge at MAMI. The grant for the research work at MAMI will provide the professors and the students with an opportunity to use high-tech equipment to work on cutting edge physics overseas. Their research, led by Dr. Hornidge, focuses on experimental subatomic physics, otherwise known as nuclear physics.

"It's akin to particle physics," explained Dr. Hornidge. "We do the same things but at lower energy. We're looking at the forces holding the nucleus together."

The group is lucky to have access to the centre in Mainz; it's one of a few electron accelerators where this research can take place. Their research on spin polarizabilities has never been done before and is therefore a priority at MAMI. When the project is completed, the researchers hope to be able to tell which of the existing theories about spin polarizabilities are in fact correct.

Because MAMI is in a university lab, the atmosphere is great for research. Time at MAMI also provides an incredible chance to learn about other ongoing research because everyone pitches in, even when the experiment running isn't their own. According to Dr. Hornidge, this is tremendously important because the group will run experiments “24/7” for two to three weeks at a time, and require six people to work three shifts of two people per day.

“It takes a lot of work,” said Dr. Hornidge.

Dr. Hornidge often gets asked what practical application the research will have. In response he explains the research is “pure research” and as such will help explain how matter works at a fundamental level, rather than help industry directly. He points out however that major advances in physics have come from doing pure research.

“Things are being engineered for nuclear physics research that aren't intentionally meant to help industry, but they will wind up there five years down the line,” said Dr. Hornidge, noting the research also trains students, who will go on to do further research or work in industry.

Dr. Sarty agrees. "There are always potential societal benefits that may come directly from research areas like this – those that study the most basic, underlying physical forces that hold matter together – but these are unpredictable ahead of time. As our understanding increases, so too do the possibilities for application."

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For More Information:

Blake Patterson
Public Affairs Officer
Saint Mary's University, Public Affairs
(902) 420.5514
E-mail: blake.patterson@smu.ca
www.smu.ca