[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Bruce_Gaulin.jpg” caption=”Bruce_Gaulin”]It's affectionately referred to as Vulcan, named after the god of fire and metalworking.

Physics professor Bruce Gaulin said the name seemed to fit McMaster University's neutron beamline because many of the engineered materials the instrument will study come from the world of metal works.

Gaulin and the McMaster community celebrated today a $15 million award from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to build and locate the neutron beamline instrument at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The instrument will be one of 24 state-of-the-art research instruments housed at the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source, scheduled to open in Oak Ridge, Tenn. in 2006. The McMaster neutron beamline will be the only Canadian instrument at the scientific facility, which is headed up by McMaster physics alumnus Thom Mason.

“McMaster's research enterprise has grown at an unprecedented rate over the last five years,” said Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president research & international affairs. “In large part, this is a direct reflection of the federal government  through programs like the Canada Foundation for Innovation  investing in our knowledge. Bruce Gaulin, following in the footsteps of Bertram Brockhouse, is perfectly positioned to turn this investment into a lifetime of science achievements.”

“The Spallation Neutron Source will be the world's most powerful source of neutrons and it will operate in only a few years time,” said Gaulin, who holds the Brockhouse Chair in the Physics of Materials. “Canadian scientists will be there as real partners in discovery, in the creation of knowledge about materials  knowledge relevant to a variety of materials – new plastics and ceramics, composite materials, biological materials, magnets and superconductors and engineering components intended for products that will improve our quality of life.”

Gaulin said the importance of the CFI funding for the neutron beamline can't be overstated. “Without the Canada Foundation for Innovation International Access Fund we wouldn't be involved at this level of research,” he said. “It's not something we can do at a local or even a national level. It lets us get in the game. Without it, we wouldn't even be at the starting block.”

The neutron beamline works to allow scientists a window into materials at the atomic and molecular level. “This will tell us how the material looks in detail on a microscopic level, how it's arranged and structured and how the solid holds itself together,” said Gaulin.

Other McMaster researchers involved in the project include Jacques Barbier (Chemistry), John E. Greedan (Chemistry), Kari Dalnoki-Varess (Physics), Graeme Luke (Physics), David Wilkinson (Materials Science), David Embury (Materials Science), Richard Epand (Biochemistry), Shiping Zhu (Chemical Engineering), Heather Sheardown (Chemical Engineering) and John Brash (Chemical Engineering).

Neutron-scattering research has already contributed to discoveries and materials used in items such as compact discs, pocket calculators, credit cards and computer hard drives.

Gaulin said the McMaster instrument will be used to study all types of existing and new materials, including material used in jet turbine blades. “We will be studying manufactured components to understand how they fail, and how they can be made stronger and more reliable, which is obviously a matter of public safety,” he said.

Gaulin's research work will build on the legacy created by the late Nobel laureate and McMaster professor emeritus Bertram Brockhouse. Brockhouse died Monday at age 85.

“We build directly on this remarkable history of achievement,” Gaulin said. “We will build new neutron instrumentation for diffraction and inelastic scattering which will allow us to ask and answer questions now thought to be intractable. By working at the cutting edge of neutron science in the first half of the 21st century, we are following closely Bert Brockhouse's tradition  Bert worked with the cutting edge neutron sources of the mid-20th century  the NRX and NRU reactors at Chalk River, and in doing so invented a field of research that resonates to the present day.”

Photo caption: Physics professor Bruce Gaulin leads a tour through a materials research lab in the Arthur Bourns Building. Photo credit: Lisa Caines