The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment team receives Governor General's Innovation Award

July 14, 2020

Congratulations to the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) team for receiving the 2020 Governor General's Innovation Award! 

"We have entered what scientists call "the CHIME Epoch" referring to a project called the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, designed to measure the expansion history of our universe and to map the cosmic distribution of fast radio bursts within it and to track radio pulsars. Conceived, funded, and built by Canadians, CHIME represents an innovative technological achievement as well as a major scientific undertaking that addresses some of the most profound questions facing contemporary astrophysics."

Since 2016, the award has celebrated Canadian innovation and entrepreneurial spirit across all sectors of Canadian society. Awards are given to individuals, teams, and/or organizations whose works are exceptional and transformative, with significant impact on the quality of life in Canada.

UBC CHIME team members include (in alphabetical order by last name): Mandana Amiri, Anja Boskovic, Kathryn Crowter, Davor Cubranic, Meiling Deng, Greg Davis, Adam Dong, Mateus Fandino, Ken Gibbs, Deborah Good, Sidhant Guiliani, Mark Halpern, Adam Hincks, Alex Hill, Gary Hinshaw, Caroline Hofer, Kiyoshi Masui, Joshua Maceachern, Bradley Meyers, Nikola Milutinovic, Arash Mirhosseini, Rick Nitsche, Cherry Ng, Tristan Pinsonneault-Marotte, Richard Shaw, Kris Sigurdson, Rick Smegal, Ingrid Stairs, Kwinten van Gassen, Don Wiebe, and Prateek Yadav.

Congratulations again everyone for this tremendous recognition!

 

 

About CHIME

CHIME was designed, built and is operated by a collaborative group of cosmologists, high-energy astrophysicists, engineers and programmers, including many students. The CHIME team, led by physicists at UBC, McGill, U of T and the National Research Council's (NRC) Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO), continues the tradition that cosmology instruments are built by the scientists who use them, and in doing so, trains the next generation of researchers. The team designed a 1-hectare radio telescope to scan the entire northern sky with no moving parts. The team also designed custom high speed electronics to capture the radio signals and programmed a network consisting literally of five truckloads of computers to sift through the avalanche of data which CHIME produces. As a team, they operate CHIME around the clock. This innovation would not have been possible without the help of the very talented staff at the DRAO.

Read more

Media Contact

Theresa Liao
Communicatoins Coordinator, UBC Physics & Astronomy
604-822-0596
communications@phas.ubc.ca