The Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2010-11 DNP Thesis Prize is Richard Allan Hydomako. Dr. Hydomako was awarded his Ph.D. by the University of Calgary in 2011 for the work “Detection of Trapped Antihydrogen”. The thesis was part of the ALPHA Experiment, an international effort to produce, trap, and perform precision spectroscopic measurements on antihydrogen. The ALPHA experiment recently confined antihydrogen atoms for the first time magnetically. Dr. Hydomako’s contribution focused on the software algorithms used to reconstruct the annihilation location and to reject backgrounds. He was responsible for the analysis which demonstrated trapping of antihydrogen.
Dr. Hydomako’s work was carried out within the ALPHA collaboration at CERN and was supervised by Prof. Robert Thompson (Calgary) and Prof. Makoto Fujiwara (TRIUMF).
Dr. Hydomako shall receive a cash award of $1000 from the DNP and will be invited to give a talk at the Winter Nuclear & Particle Physics Conference in February 2012 in Mont Tremblant, Québec. The travel expenses for this will be generously covered by TRIUMF. A two page summary of Dr. Hydomako’s thesis work will appear in a later issue of Physics in Canada.
This prize was set up in 2005 by the DNP, to be awarded in Experimental or Theoretical Nuclear Physics to any student receiving their Ph.D. degree from a Canadian University in the current or prior calendar year. The selection for the 2010-11 Prize was adjudicated by a committee consisting of Zisis Papandreou (Professor and DNP Chair Elect, Experimental Nuclear Physics, University of Regina), Sonia Bacca (Research Scientist, Theoretical Nuclear Physics, TRIUMF) and Adam Garnsworthy (Research Scientist, Nuclear Structure, TRIUMF). Three theses were nominated, representing a broad variety of topics in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics. All of the theses were strong and the competition was very close. We would like to thank all of the nominees and the people who wrote letters of support for their participation in this year’s competition.