The Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2016-17 DNP PhD Thesis Prize is Dr. Mirko Miorelli. Dr. Miorelli was awarded his Ph.D. by the University of British Columbia in 2017 on his work on “Electromagnetic properties of medium-mass nuclei using coupled-cluster theory”, under the supervision of Dr. Sonia Bacca (TRIUMF). His work presents a novel theoretical approach that is based on ab-initio calculations of nuclei to compute fundamental properties of several isotopes of He, O and Ca. The use of theoretical ab-initio methods, together with state-of-the-art two- and three-nucleon interactions, is an extremely timely and relevant research topic that has been identified in the Canadian subatomic physics long-range plan and of a strong worldwide interest. Although these calculations are typically limited to only the very lightest nuclei, the thesis of Dr. Miorelli presents a new method that has allowed, for the first time, calculations of electromagnetic properties to be performed in nuclei as heavy as Ca.
Dr. Miorelli is invited to give a talk at the CAP Annual Congress in June 2018 held in Halifax, and will receive a cash award of $1,000 from the DNP. His travel expenses will be generously covered by TRIUMF. A two-page summary of his thesis work will appear in an 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 2017-18 Prize was adjudicated by a committee consisting of Alex Gezerlis (University of Guelph), Gwen Grinyer (University of Regina), and Juliette Mammei (University of Manitoba). Six theses were nominated, and all of them were based on high-quality research and were very well written, providing for a healthy competition. We would like to thank all of the nominees and the persons who wrote letters of support for their participation in this year’s competition.