Congratulations to Geoff Grinyer!

The Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) announced the result of the 2007-08 Thesis Prize competition. This prize was set up in 2005 by the DNP, to be awarded in Experimental or Theoretical Nuclear Physics to any student receiving their Ph.D. degree from a Canadian University in the current or prior calendar year. The selection for the 2008 Prize was adjudicated by a committee consisting of David Hutcheon (representing TRIUMF), Jean Barrette (McGill University) and Kumar S. Sharma (University of Manitoba). Six theses were nominated, representing a broad variety of topics in nuclear physics.

By unanimous agreement among the judges, the recipient of the 2007 DNP Thesis Prize was Geoffrey Grinyer. Dr. Grinyer was awarded his Ph.D. by the University of Guelph in 2007 for the work \"High Precision Half-life Measurements for Superallowed Fermi Decays\". The precise measurement of half-lives and branching ratios, described in Dr. Grinyer's work, are instrumental in one of the most stringent tests of the unitarity of the CKM matrix, a fundamental test of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. This work was performed under the supervision of Professor Carl Svensson.

Dr. Grinyer shall receive a cash award of $750 from the DNP and will be invited to give a talk at the Winter Nuclear & Particle Physics Conference this coming February in Banff. The travel expenses will be generously covered by TRIUMF. A two page summary of Dr. Grinyer's thesis work will appear in a later issue of Physics in Canada.