Arthur B. McDonald facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arthur B. McDonald
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McDonald in Stockholm, December 2015
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Arthur Bruce McDonald
August 29, 1943 Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
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| Known for | Solving the solar neutrino problem |
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| Fields | Astrophysics |
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| Thesis | Excitation energies and decay properties of T = 3/2 states in 17O, 17F and 21Na. (1970) |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles A. Barnes |
Arthur Bruce McDonald is a famous Canadian astrophysicist. An astrophysicist is a scientist who studies space and the universe, including stars, planets, and tiny particles. Dr. McDonald is known for his important work on tiny particles called neutrinos.
He was the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration. He also held a special teaching position at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In 2015, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Japanese physicist Takaaki Kajita. They won for their discoveries about neutrinos.
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Early Life and Education
Arthur "Art" McDonald was born on August 29, 1943, in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. He loved science from a young age. He earned his first science degree in physics in 1964 from Dalhousie University. The next year, he got his master's degree there too.
He then went to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the United States. In 1969, he earned his PhD in physics. Dr. McDonald has said that his high school math teacher and his first physics professor inspired him to study physics.
Academic Journey
After finishing his studies, Art McDonald worked as a researcher. From 1969 to 1982, he worked at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories in Canada. He then became a physics professor at Princeton University from 1982 to 1989.
In 1989, he moved back to Canada to teach at Queen's University. He taught there until 2013. In 2004, he was a visiting scientist at CERN, a famous science lab in Switzerland.
Since 2013, Dr. McDonald has been a professor emeritus at Queen's University. This means he is retired but still connected to the university. He continues to work on research about neutrinos and dark matter at the SNOLAB lab.
Amazing Neutrino Research
Scientists have been trying to figure out if tiny particles called neutrinos have mass. Neutrinos are incredibly small and travel almost at the speed of light. Since the 1960s, experiments showed that fewer neutrinos were reaching Earth from the Sun than expected. This was called the "solar neutrino problem."
Scientists thought that these "missing" neutrinos might be changing. Neutrinos come in three types: electron, muon, and tau. Solar detectors mostly saw only electron neutrinos. The idea was that electron neutrinos might change into other types. If a neutrino changes its type, it's called neutrino oscillation. According to the rules of quantum mechanics, if a particle oscillates, it must have a tiny bit of mass.
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
In 1984, Dr. McDonald and other scientists had a brilliant idea. They decided to build a special detector using "heavy water." Heavy water is like regular water but with a heavier type of hydrogen. This new detector would be able to see all three types of neutrinos, not just electron neutrinos. This meant they could directly check if neutrinos were changing types.
They formed the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) collaboration. The SNO detector was built deep underground in a mine near Sudbury, Ontario. It used 1000 tonnes of heavy water. Being deep underground helped block out other particles that could interfere with the measurements.
Solving the Solar Neutrino Problem
In August 2001, the SNO team, led by Dr. McDonald since 1989, announced their amazing discovery. Their observations showed that electron neutrinos from the Sun were indeed changing into muon and tau neutrinos. This proved that neutrinos oscillate and, therefore, have mass!
This discovery was a huge breakthrough in physics. For this work, Dr. McDonald received many awards. He won the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2007. In 2015, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. He also received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2016.
Dr. McDonald is still involved in neutrino research today. He works with experiments like SNO+ and DEAP-3600 at SNOLAB. He also helps with the DarkSide-20k experiment in Italy.
Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute
In May 2018, a research center was renamed in Dr. McDonald's honor. It is now called the Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute. This was done to recognize his pioneering work. His discoveries helped make Canada a world leader in the study of astroparticle physics.
Helping During the Pandemic
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of medical equipment. Dr. McDonald became a leader in a project to make ventilators. Ventilators are machines that help people breathe. The goal was to make them at a low cost.
The idea came from another physicist who saw similarities between particle physics equipment and ventilators. Dr. McDonald led the Canadian team. They worked with other labs and institutes to design a new ventilator. The design was shared openly so anyone could use it. This project helped provide important medical devices during a difficult time.
Awards and Honours
Dr. Arthur McDonald has received many important awards and recognitions for his work:
- 1983, Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 2003, Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering
- 2005, Bruno Pontecorvo Prize in Particle Physics
- 2006, Officer of the Order of Canada
- 2007, Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics
- 2009, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) of the UK
- 2009, Member of the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame
- 2011, Royal Society of Canada's Henry Marshall Tory Medal
- 2012, Member of the Order of Ontario
- 2015, Nobel Prize in Physics
- 2015, Promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada (the highest level)
- 2016, An asteroid was named after him: 229781 Arthurmcdonald
- 2016, Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
- 2016, Member of the Order of Nova Scotia
See also
In Spanish: Arthur B. McDonald para niños
