Sydney-native Arthur B. McDonald shares Nobel Prize in physics
Posted Oct 6, 2015 07:05:37 AM.
Last Updated Oct 6, 2015 08:16:09 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
STOCKHOLM – Canadian scientist Arthur B. McDonald is a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.
McDonald, a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., shares the prize with Japanese scientist Takaaki Kajita.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities.
Neutrinos are particles that whizz through the universe at nearly the speed of light.
“The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe,” the academy said.
McDonald was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and got his undergraduate and master’s degrees in physics from Dalhousie University in Halifax. He went on to get his Ph.D. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology.
Kajita is director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and professor at the University of Tokyo, while McDonald is a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
The winners will split about $960,000 in prize money.
Each winner also gets a diploma and a gold medal at the prize ceremony on Dec. 10.
