Prof. Arthur B. McDonald

2015 Nobel Laureate for Physics and Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Ontario/Canada

Professor McDonald’s discovery has led a new generation of scientists to re-examine the role played by neutrinos in the evolution of the Universe.

Biography:

Prof. Arthur B. McDonald is a Canadian astrophysicist and the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2015 for his discovery that neutrinos – sub-atomic particles considered the basic building blocks of the Universe – can change their identities as they travel through space, from the core of the sun to Earth. Billions of neutrinos are coursing through our bodies every second, but they very seldom interact in our lifetime. For many years they were assumed to be mass-less and immutable, but Professor McDonald’s discovery proved the existence of neutrino oscillation for solar neutrinos and indicated that the Standard Model for Elementary Particles is incomplete and requires changes. This has led a new generation of scientists to re-examine the role played by neutrinos in the evolution of the Universe. Professor McDonald’s type of experiments have thus become some of the most promising, powerful, versatile and efficient ways to explore both particle physics and the universe itself, and he continues his research in neutrinos and Dark Matter at SNOLAB in a 2,100 meters underground mine outside Sudbury, Ontario.

Topic of keynote speech:

• Answering existential questions about our Universe and its evolution

Schedule:

Monday, March 9, 2026

14:00 Keynote speech and dialogue at Tamkang University in New Taipei

Further information and free seat reservation via phone +886-2-2621-5656 #2223 or email
ptrx@oa.tku.edu.tw