SNOLAB

[Vale]’s Creighton Mine in Lively, west of Sudbury, was identified as an ideal location for the lab. The lab would be built at the mine’s 6,800-foot level, where two kilometres of solid rock overhead would protect its delicate experiments from outside radiation and cosmic rays. It took researchers eight years to build the ambitious SNO experiment, which ran from 1998 to 2006.

[Half way through the SNO experiment the SNOLAB] project was jointly proposed by Laurentian University, Carleton University, Queen’s University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Guelph and the Université de Montréal.

- Jonathan Migneault, 2016 The Key:Laurentian University Research Magazine 

The SNOLAB's research facility's 2 km depth helps shields sensitive detectors from background radiations along with the high purity detectors and shields. One of the most notable features of this facility is the clean-room laboratories, in which all lab materials and personal must be rid of mine dust and before entering in order to maintain the world’s deepest clean-room laboratories.

There are 4 main areas known as the SNO cavern, Cryopit, Cube Hall, and Ladder Labs (used for smaller experiments). As well as many other rooms, such as a clean chemistry lab and a clean machine shop.

SNOLAB’s vision for the future is to “be the location and partner of choice for deep underground science, delivering world-class science and benefit to Canada, and her international partners, by providing and promoting national and international access to the unique facilities and expertise at SNOLAB”.

To attain this goal they plan to:

• Enable world-class science
• Spearhead world-class science
• Catalyze world-class science
• Promote world-class science
• Inspire the next generation

On October 9, 2015 – Colleagues and associates of Dr. Arthur McDonald at Laurentian University and at the SNOLAB research facility are applauding the news that Dr. McDonald is a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.  Dr. McDonald, emeritus professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario was jointly named this year’s Nobel Laureate with Dr. Takaaki Kajita of the University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan. Dr. McDonald was honoured for his work in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a collaboration between Laurentian University and five other Canadian universities.

November 8, 2015 – The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) Collaboration, represented by Queen’s University professor emeritus Arthur McDonald, shared the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The Prize was presented by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation “for the fundamental discovery of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics”. Laurentian University acknowledged Dr. Hallman in particular, Professors Jacques Farine, Rizwan Haq, Christine Kraus and Clarence Virtue (all Laurentian faculty who have contributed to the SNO research), along with a total of 22 Laurentian faculty members, past graduate students and post-doctoral researchers who are all among the recipients of this honour.

The 2016 Key magazine highlights how Laurentian University proudly recognizes the many advancements of the Sudbury community which includes SNOLAB members’ prestigious awards. The magazine celebrates the Nobel Prize and the Breakthrough Prize given to Dr. Art McDonald and the SNO Collaboration which includes several members of the Laurentian community. The research partnership between SNOLAB and Laurentian University helps push “the boundaries of knowledge” and continues to have far-reaching global impacts to the astrophysics and scientific community.