Report of the Peer Review Committee on the Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF)

Executive Summary

This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the 2003 TRIUMF Peer Review Committee on the Laboratory's Five-Year Plan (2005-2010) recently submitted to Canada's National Research Council for funding.

The Review Committee endorses without reservation the proposed five-year scientific research program with its well-defined priorities. The Committee considers the proposed research program to be of the highest quality.

The Committee commends the process by which the Five-Year Plan was developed, in particular, the continued and major involvement of the Canadian science community.

TRIUMF has undergone a major reorientation over the last decade from a hadron facility primarily for medium-energy nuclear physics to a laboratory with a two-fold research mission: i) an internal program based on the 500 MeV cyclotron, primarily the ISAC facility, to provide intense beams of short-lived nuclei for nuclear astrophysics and physics of nuclei far from stability; plus important programs in molecular, materials, and life sciences; ii) an external program directed towards the major opportunities in particle physics expected from future facilities, in particular the LHC at CERN. In addition, TRIUMF has developed a vigorous and successful technology transfer, educational and public awareness program.

In the Committee's opinion, the laboratory has successfully mastered the many critical issues underlying its difficult transition and is now well positioned to assume its dual role in the internal and the external programs.

Technical developments, in particular the successful construction of ISAC, as well as programmatic structures are now well aligned to allow major contributions to the respective areas of research. The proposed Five-Year Plan effectively translates the general goals of the science into a detailed and well-planned program.

The Committee believes that, based on these developments, TRIUMF provides new and important opportunities in its traditional role of supporting Canadian university research and increasingly attracts scientists from the international community.

The leadership, technical, and management structure in place at the laboratory are well suited to successfully carrying out the five-year program.

The Committee considers the requested funding support appropriate and necessary. Any reduction would unavoidably result in the loss of important science for TRIUMF and the Canadian scientific community at large.

General Comments and Recommendations

The Peer Review Committee:

1. Expresses its appreciation for the very professional and comprehensive documents that TRIUMF provided for the Committee, which conveyed relevant, detailed, and explicit information;
   
   
2. Expresses also its satisfaction with the enthusiasm and commitment observed at all levels of the laboratory, both in the presentations by young scientists or the management and during the visits; this constitutes a strong factor of unity and effectiveness for the laboratory;
   
   
3. Commends the management for the thorough and open way in which the Five-Year Plan has been prepared, through numerous workshops and town meetings, ensuring appropriate bottom-up input from the Canadian scientific community concerned;
   
   
4. Congratulates TRIUMF for taking practical steps to fulfill its dual role as:
   
   
   • a major laboratory on its own, with its specific objectives on the competitive world scene, and
     
     
   • a national laboratory responding to the needs of Canadian universities;
     
     
5. Taking note of the important role of joint appointments of scientists by TRIUMF and universities, encourages the management to further involve Canadian universities with its strategy and activities;
   
   
6. Endorses the clear strategic priorities put forward in the Plan, which aim at:
   
   
   • taking decisive steps to ensure that ISAC-II will be the world leader in isotope-separated re-accelerated radioactive ion beams with powerful, well optimized instrumentation, and catering to a broad international users community, and
     
     
   • participating successfully in ATLAS physics at CERN;
     
     
7. Approves strongly the well documented requests made in the Five-Year Plan, which have been tailored to accomplish the world class objectives of ISAC-II and ATLAS, to support the research activities selected in the Plan both internally and externally, and to fulfill TRIUMF's role as a national laboratory;
   
   
8. Praises the laboratory for having studied in detail the corresponding distribution of financial and manpower resources, taking into account appropriate redeployments over the period of the Plan;
   
   
9. Supports the procedure that the management intends to put forward so that it receives regular advice on the scientific and technical developments of the laboratory from ACOT, from the Board of Management, and from a new body derived from the Working Group which prepared the Five-Year Plan; and
   
   
10. Notes that user liaison and communications could be improved and recommends that the laboratory address this appropriately.