[News-releases] Japan and Canada to Compete for Top American Researcher

[Tim Meyer]

News Release | For Immediate Release | July 11, 2013, 18:00 PDT

JAPAN AND CANADA TO COMPETE FOR TOP AMERICAN RESEARCHER

(Vancouver, BC) --- In an unusual alliance between TRIUMF, Canada’s national
laboratory for nuclear and particle physics, and the Kavli Institute for the
Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) in Japan, a long-term
joint research position has been created in order to recruit, develop, and
support a world-leading scientist in two countries.  The catch?  After
working for the first four years with 75% of his time in Japan and 25% in
Canada, the candidate will choose which laboratory’s long-term job offer to
accept. American physicist Dr. Mark Hartz has been selected for this
high-stakes competition and in five years will be choosing his long-term
home in Tokyo or Vancouver. 

>From either side of the Pacific Ocean, there will continue to be a great
demand for Hartz. He has been appointed as assistant professor and is
expected to carry out the full range of duties of a grant tenure track
research scientist at both Kavli IPMU and TRIUMF. Additionally, he will
serve on internal committees and represent both institutes at the national
and international level. His cross-cultural and cross-laboratory experiences
will be a great benefit for both Kavli IPMU and TRIUMF.

Dr. Nigel S. Lockyer, director of TRIUMF, acknowledged the rarity and
significance of Hartz’s role. Lockyer said, “We need more competitive,
cross-border positions like this to enrich and strengthen top talent. I’m
delighted that Japan agrees that Hartz is worth fighting for, and yet I’m
confident that in the long term Canada is the right place for him and his
world-class research ambitions.”

Dr. Hitoshi Murayama, director of Kavli IPMU, said, “Mark is a tremendous
addition to our team and will help expand our institutional role in the
Japanese flagship T2K neutrino experiment. Once he comes to Kavli IPMU and
sees our fantastic environment with interdisciplinary interactions with
astronomers and mathematicians, I have no doubt that he will settle down
here.  We already have a great track record of keeping our non-Japanese
scientists happy and productive.” 

In recent years, Hartz experienced the enormous benefits of global
collaboration through research at the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) neutrino
experiment—an international investigation into the behaviour of neutrinos as
they travel from one location to another, where he led national efforts to
develop beamline monitors and analysis specific to the experiment. With his
advanced technical and engineering background, Hartz is an ideal candidate
for this cross-laboratory role. He will continue to focus his tenure on the
T2K collaboration and is expected to build a strong T2K experimental group
at Kavli IPMU.

“The T2K experiment is a textbook example of scientists working across
borders to drive new discoveries and pursue the best science,” said Hartz.
“This joint position is a brilliant opportunity to work with research
communities and give momentum to those interactions.  Although national
borders are invisible to the scientist in me, I am curious to see where I’ll
end up in five years!” 

As a post-doctoral fellow at both York University and the University of
Toronto, Hartz gained extensive experience with the T2K Optical Transition
detector and led both the beam analysis and Near Detector to Far Detector
Extrapolation analysis groups. He completed detailed predictions of neutrino
beam properties prior to the neutrino changing its form in a phenomenon
called “neutrino oscillation”. Additionally, Hartz developed sophisticated
analysis tools to constrain the neutrino beam flux—an important element for
analyzing the oscillations of neutrinos. 

Kavli IPMU Director Dr. Hitoshi Murayama will be visiting Vancouver on July
12, 2013, to discuss the mysteries of the universe in a public talk hosted
by Science World and TRIUMF.  More at
http://www.triumf.ca/headlines/current-events/dr-hitoshi-murayama-science-wo
rld.  


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Timothy I. Meyer, Ph.D.
Head, Strategic Planning & Communications
TRIUMF -- Accelerating Science for Canada | 
    Un accélérateur de la démarche scientifique canadienne
4004 Wesbrook Mall | Vancouver, BC  V6T 2A3 | CANADA
Tel: 604.222.7674
Fax: 604.222.3791
Mobile (w/call fwd): 604.235.1925
E-mail: tmeyer at triumf.ca
WWW: http://www.triumf.ca
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