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Memorial Hall was filled to capacity on Wednesday, Dec. 7, as Queen's physics professor emeritus and Nobel laureate Art McDonald delivered a public lecture.

The lecture, titled, Neutrinos, Nobel and the Nature of the Universe, took attendees through the entire Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment - from early planning, to deep underground in a Sudbury Mine, to the stage in Stockholm as Dr. McDonald accepted the Nobel Prize. Dr. McDonald also discussed the significance of the SNO findings to the broader physics landscape, described the next generation of SNOLAB experiments, and shared a few personal anecdotes from along the way.

At the conclusion of the lecture, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson presented Dr. McDonald with the key to the city, in recognition of his contributions to science and our understanding of the universe.

The work conducted as part of the SNO collaboration and subsequently at SNOLAB has led to groundbreaking results cementing Canada’s, and Queen’s, reputation as a world leader in the field. Building on this history of success, Queen’s is home to Gilles Gerbier, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Particle Astrophysics, and, earlier this year, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund provided Queen’s with a significant investment to support the creation of the Canadian Particle Astrophysics Research Centre (CPARC). The centre will help facilitate a number of leading-edge projects, including the next-generation SNO+ experiment, which will allow Queen’s and its partner institutions to continue the trajectory of research excellence inspired by Dr. McDonald and his colleagues.