Arthur McDonald, a professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston and the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in northern Ontario, is the a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics. Professor McDonald, 72, and Japanese scientist Takaaki Kajita, were named for the discovery of allusive neutrino oscillations and their contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities. “The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in announcing the award early Tuesday. McDonald called the accolade a “very daunting experience, needless to say.” Speaking to reporters by phone he said “Fortunately, I have many colleagues as well who share this prize with me.” McDonald will. split nearly a million dollars in prize money with his co-winner. McDonald said there was a “eureka moment” when they were able to see that neutrinos were able to change from one type to another in travelling from the sun to the earth. “Neutrinos are among the fundamental particles (which) we do not know how to subdivide any further. Therefore, their position within the models of physics at the most fundamental level is very important,” he said. “When you do not know whether they have mass, it’s otherwise difficult to understand how to incorporate them into those theories that give us a more complete understanding of the world of physics at the most fundamental level. Discovering this property helps us tremendously in this regard.”
