Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Dunlop - 2020-21 CAP DNP Ph.D. Thesis Prize Winner

Posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2021

Dr. Ryan Dunlop has been awarded the 2020-21 Ph.D. Thesis Prize by the Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP).

Ryan completed his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Measurement of $r$-process Nuclei $^{128-130}Cd$ and $^{131}In$ with the $\gamma$-Ray Infrastructure for Fundamental Investigations of Nuclei (GRIFFIN)" at the University of Guelph in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Carl Svensson.

Ryan's thesis focussed on measurements of astrophysically relevant nuclei using the GRIFFIN $\gamma$-ray spectrometer at TRIUMF.  The structures of $N=82$ nuclei below doubly-magic $^{132}Sn$ are crucial for calculations of the astrophysical $r$-process as these isotopes form "waiting-points" that play an important role in the formation and shape of the second $r$-process abundance peak.  Many of the most neutron-rich $N=82$ nuclei are, however, out of reach to the current generation of radioactive beam facilities and their properties must be predicted.  The measurements performed by Ryan helped to resolve a long-standing problem with systematic discrepancies in the calculations of the half-lives of neutron-rich $N=82$ nuclei.

Ryan has been invited to give a talk at the upcoming 2021 CAP Annual Congress and will receive a cash award of \$1,000 from the DNP.  A two-page summary of his thesis work will appear in an upcoming issue of Physics in Canada.