Contact:

Education:

• B.Sc. with High Honours, University of Saskatchewan, 1992
• M.Sc. Theoretical Subatomic Physics, University of Saskatchewan, 1995
• Ph.D. Experimental Subatomic Physics, University of Saskatchewan, 1999
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Experimental Subatomic Physics, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany, 1999-2003

Research:

My field of research is medium-energy experimental subatomic physics, with the specific goal of testing models of the strong nuclear force through the study of hadron structure.  To this end, we carry out experiments at intermediate-energy nuclear physics laboratories.  In the past we have participated in measurements at the now defunct Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL) in Saskatoon (which is now the Canadian Light Source), and Maxlab in Lund, Sweden.

In 2009, we joined forces with two other Canadian groups: one from Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and one from the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan.  Most of our efforts are currently focused on work in the A2 Collaboration at the Mainzer Mikrotron (MAMI) in Mainz, Germany, but in the longer term, we intend to get more involved with experiments at the Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) in Newport News, Virginia.

One of the projects we are working on at present is a series of Compton scattering experiments to extract the proton spin polarizabilities.  These quantities are fundamental structure constants like the charge and mass, and are similar to the more common dipole polarizabilities, which measure the response of a system to external electric and magnetic fields. There is, however, unfortunately no classical analog for the spin polarizabilities.

To conduct these experiments, we use the relativistic electron beam of MAMI and the tagging system to produce both polarized and unpolarized photon beams, which are incident on targets of both polarized and unpolarized protons.  The Crystal Ball and TAPS detectors, arranged in a nearly 4π set-up detect the scattered photons and recoil protons in the final state.  After analyzing the data and separating out the background processes, and with the help of theoretical models of the nucleon, we hope to obtain the spin polarizabilities, which can then be compared to theoretical predictions in order to test the validity of these models.

Recent publications

Recent honours theses

OUR GROUP

Courses:

• Phys 1051 Intro I
• Phys 1401 Physics of Music and Sound
• Phys 1551 Intro II
• Phys 3201 Statistical Mechanics
• Phys 3451 Mathematical Methods
• Phys 3811 Modern Physics
• Phys 3821 Quantum Mechanics I
• Phys 4311 Modern Optics
• Phys 4851 Nuclei and Fundamental Particles
• Scie 1001 Contemporary Topics in Science

• Phys 1051 Intro I
• Phys 3821 Quantum Mechanics I
• Phys 1401 Physics of Music and Sound
• Phys 3201 Statistical Mechanics