Erich W Vogt, the Canadian nuclear physicist and UBC professor who helped found Canada's national nuclear and particle physics lab and Science World BC, passed away on February 19, 2014. 

He was the recipient of the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

"As one of the pioneering founders of the lab, Erich was a huge part of the TRIUMF family as well as that of UBC and the broader physics community around the world," said Jim Hanlon, head of TRIUMF’s Business and Administration Division, in a statement.

"He contributed to each and every person he met with warmth, advice, and a wry joke or story that put everything into perspective. I expect that many people will be affected by this loss and will want to pause and reflect on the ways that Erich touched their lives." Vogt was born in Steinbach, Manitoba on November 12, 1929 and received academic degrees at the University of Manitoba and Princeton University. From 1956 to 1965, he was on the staff of the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory as a theoretical physicist where he published a large number of papers on nuclear reactions and was heavily involved in the creation of the first CANDU reactors for Canada.

In 1965, Vogt became a professor at the University of British Columbia, and was a founder and one of the prime movers behind the TRIUMF project -- Canada's National Meson Sciences Research Facility located on the University’s Vancouver campus. From 1975 until 1981, he served as Vice President, Faculty and Student Affairs at UBC. In 2006 he was appointed to the Order of British Columbia and in the same year received the UBC Faculty of Science Achievement Award for Teaching. He continued to teach first year physics until his 80th birthday in 2009, and in 45 years taught more than 5,000 students.

Vogt was president of the Canadian Association of Physicists from 1970 to 71, earning the 1988 CAP Medal for Achievement in Physics. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 1977, the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal, and the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 and the Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. In 1978, Vogt was appointed as the first Chairman of the Science Council of British Columbia, a position which he held until 1980.

A In Memoriam page was set up for Erich - please visit the page to share your memories of Erich, or to contribute to Erich's First Year Student Research Experience Endowment Fund. Dr. Alan Poon, who was Erich's student and now at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), presented on Erich's contributions to student edication during the 2014 Canadian Association of Physicist Congress (presentation available via UBC cIRcle). In addition, PHAS Professor Emeritus Jesse Brewer put together a website dedicated to the memories of Dr. Erich Vogt, with a good collection of photos of Erich on the Gallery page, and links to other relevant information.

For more information, contact Kirsty Dickson, Communications Coordinator, UBC Physics & Astronomy. communications@phas.ubc.ca

Evan worked with Drs Hasinoff and Paschal on the Dark-Light Experiment at TRIUMF

What was a highlight(s) of your summer research experience? 
This summer, I helped DarkLight in their search for a “dark force mediator”, which, if found, would interact with a Standard Model boson to connect the Standard Model sector to the dark sector.   

DarkLight completed its commissioning run this spring, and I was among the first to look at the resulting data, specifically on the gas electron multiplier detectors. My role was to reduce noise and improve detection of relativistic beta particles.   

Being involved at such a critical stage allowed me significant creative freedom in my work, as no process was set in stone. Getting to experiment with new methods of analyzing particle hit data made learning about particle physics all the more fun.  

Beyond the work, I found the TRIUMF community very supportive, whether it was my team, my peers, or the scientists who took the time to answer my eager questions. From touring the cyclotron and hot cells to visiting other teams (and even playing volleyball with them), it was truly a great opportunity to see what TRIUMF and particle physics have to offer.

What tips would you offer students who are interested in a UBC USRA, or FYSRE research experience? 
Take the time to explore! UBC and TRIUMF have so much to offer; you just need to find out what’s right for you. For me, that meant trying out a design team, running my own project, getting access to the Student Machine Shop, working with my teachers beyond the scope of the class, and asking questions (most researchers love talking about their work). Whatever that means for you, chase it down so that when you get to the interview, you show that you’ve made your first year count, and that you are excited for more. 

What are some new insights you have about academic research and/or science education and/or industry?  
In academic research, an experiment that does not find the particle it is looking for can still be a success. The scientific process involves identifying possible theories before experimentally determining the bounds within which each theory still holds. For the dark matter search, this means designing an experiment to find a specific range of possible particle properties. To reach where we are now, dozens of teams across the world have combined their results to identify where dark matter isn’t, so we can slowly move to where it is. 

Selma worked with Dr. Kunimoto on exoplanet research.

What was a highlight(s) of your summer research experience?

One of the biggest highlights was diving into massive datasets from NASA's TESS mission and finding a "hot Neptune" candidate. These planets sit in the "Neptune Desert," a region close to the host star where Neptunian planets are exceptionally rare. With only seven similarly sized hot Neptunes having measured masses and densities so far, confirming and characterizing this candidate is crucial for refining theories on planetary formation and evolution. It's even a candidate target for the Ariel Space Mission.

To measure its mass and work toward confirming this discovery, we needed high-precision radial velocity data. We worked on a proposal for the MAROON-X spectrograph on Gemini North, an 8-meter class telescope. Finding out our proposal was not only approved but scored in the first quartile of all submissions was an incredible feeling. Earning observation time on a world-class telescope was a massive highlight.

What was the most challenging part of your research?

The nature of research is that there is no answer key; you are stepping onto paths that haven't been taken, and when a bug pops up or a computational model fails, you have to creatively troubleshoot your own way out. As of now, only one transiting exoplanet around a white dwarf has ever been discovered. Not because they're extremely rare, but because traditional search tools and detection algorithms simply weren't built to handle white dwarf transits, which are ultra-fast and break standard algorithms.

My main challenge was building and optimizing a data pipeline engineered specifically for these signals. One of the biggest hurdles was that, apart from a single confirmed example, we had no real-world benchmark data to test our code on. I had to architect and generate synthetic dataset simulations to stress-test our algorithms, debug edge cases, and teach the system to recognize true planetary signals.

What are some surprising facts about your research field and/or project?

First, how insanely fast white dwarf transits are! When a planet passes in front of a normal main-sequence star, the telescope captures a continuous "U" shaped curve with plenty of data points. But because white dwarfs are stellar remnants roughly the size of Earth, a transit might only last long enough to capture one or two data points. This completely breaks traditional transit-fitting models, forcing you to engineer new ways to parse the data and teach the code what a "real" signal looks like.

Second, the mystery of the "Neptune Desert." Finding our hot Neptune candidate is like finding a missing puzzle piece. Because they are so rare, characterizing this planet's mass and density will help us figure out how it survived: whether it formed a massive, gas-poor core through giant impacts, or if it's the exposed interior of a former gas giant that had its outer layers stripped away.

How do you think this experience will help you in your developing career?

As someone studying both computer science and physics, this summer was an incredible opportunity to bring my two academic passions together. Moving into my second year of undergrad, I now have highly practical experience architecting code to solve physical problems and handling real-world, messy datasets rather than just clean textbook examples. This intersection of computation, data analysis, and astronomy is exactly where I want to build my career, and this experience cemented my confidence in navigating it.

What have you gained from this experience?

I received a massive technical upgrade. I became highly proficient in Python, specifically for complex data analysis and wrangling huge datasets. I also learned to run GPU-accelerated code on TESS's remote payload data operations (PDO) servers, which was an absolute game-changer for processing speed and scale. Beyond the hard coding skills, I gained a deep resilience for troubleshooting. When you are managing hundreds of thousands of stars and data points, things will inevitably break. Learning how to efficiently track down a bug in a massive codebase and turn a sea of raw numbers into clear, scientific insights was the most valuable takeaway.

"One of the biggest highlights of my summer experience was the opportunity to participate in the BeEST (Beryllium Electron capture in Superconducting Tunnel junctions) Experiment Collaboration Meeting. I was able to see firsthand the progress made by leading experts in the search for sterile neutrinos and observe how they plan their research and design future experiments. Between attending the collaboration meeting and participating in bi-weekly group meetings, I gained incredible insight into how a major project searching for particles beyond the Standard Model comes together." Read the full survey with Nicolas here.

"A highlight from my summer research experience was seeing my setup take accurate and new data after hours of work. From researching the non-linear optics that govern the behaviour of Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG), to asking the graduate students I was working with many many questions, then spending hours bent over the laser table setting up different lenses, filters, beam splitters, translation stages and mirrors and even more hours trying to understand why my setup was not behaving how I expected it to..." Read the full survey with Emma here.

"In June, we drove down to LIGO Hanford for the Gravitational Waves Astronomy Northwest Conference, which was an exciting and incredibly interesting experience...it’s difficult to truly grasp how large and complex it needs to be, and how much hard work continues to go into making this research possible, without being there and seeing the scale of everything." Read the full survey with Airene Ahuja.

"The highlight of this summer was to be in a working environment that emphasised learning and curiosity above all. Being with other motivated undergraduates, while working closely with graduate students and supervisors who are at the cutting edge of their fields, made the work feel impactful." Read the full survey with Ellen Brisley.

"The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has to be my favorite physics tech. The fact that it accelerates particles to 99.999999% of the speed of light and collides bunches of 10^11 particles every 25 nanoseconds is mind-blowing. As someone working on data from the ATLAS experiment, I am constantly amazed by how the LHC enables research at the high energy frontier." Read the full survey with Joshua Himmens.

"Working at TRIUMF meant that I was surrounded by, and contributed to, cutting edge research in so many domains...It was simply a very enriching learning experience." Read the full survey with Youssef Elhagrasy.

"TRIUMF has been the place I have looked up to since the day I realized I wanted to go into physics, and my summer experience at the lab has made me even more certain about going into research." Read the full interview with Jenny Zhu.

"The bulk of my work is doing simulations and data analysis for a series of beamline experiments involving firing a muon beam at a target and simulating the results of the experiment." Read the full interview with Cyrus Young.

"At TRIUMF, I’m working on first-principles calculations of the nuclear matrix element for two-neutrino double beta decays, a quantity related to decay rates and half-lives." Read the full interview with Michael Liudeng.

"Looking back to when I started my position, I had very little experience with computational physics and programming (I didn’t even know how to run a command line). However, by the end of my work term, I was submitting huge simulations to computer clusters and programming my own code to analyze the data." Read the full interview with Annudesh.

"The FYSRE experience has been a rewarding personal experience that confirmed my desire to pursue a career in physics....[This] support gave me the opportunity to get an early exposure as an undergraduate student to research and act as an active member of a group." Read the full interview with Valentina.

"I was excited to explore the world of physics research at the atomic scale, and what I learned has only fueled my curiosity for physics. Through my summer research, I realized that physics is far from simply observing the world; physics also helps us create new things that the world has never seen before. I found this amazing." Read the full interview with Tiffany.

"Coming into university, I never would have thought I could have had this kind of opportunity. I can't wait to work with and learn from some great physicists, and discover a little bit more about the universe along the way."

"My dream future job at the going into the summer was to someday become a professor in physics; my passion for that dream was stronger coming out of it." Read the full interview with Rio.

"The chance to get into such a strong physics community like they have at TRIUMF is something that is hard to match. Being surrounded by inspiring people who are all super into physics and having nerdy conversations over lunch was really great. " Read the full interview with John.

"Working at an institution like TRIUMF is something I didn't imagine being able to do as a first-year student, prior to receiving the FYSRE award." Read the full interview with Monica.

"The experience showed me that physics isn't all theoretical work. As an engineering physics student, it was really exciting to apply coursework in computer and electrical engineering to practical problems in the lab. I would definitely consider working as an engineering in a research setting in the future." Read the full interview with Jiayi.

"I had a strong passion for Physics prior to FYSRE and so, if anything, my experience working at TRIUMF furthered that passion. Working in such a diversified environment did however give me a much better understanding and appreciation of different areas of Physics. Particularly, it helped me realize my interest in pursuing a career in Applied Physics." Read the full interview with Pedram.

Honourable Mention, 17th Annual TRIUMF Summer Student Symposium.

“I feel that it is an opportunity for me to both learn more about modern physics and also to challenge myself apart from university coursework,” said Gaurav. “Watching science as it unfolds and being a part of it is a feeling unlike any other.” Read Gaurav's interview with TRIUMF.

“To start your own business and develop new devices, not only what you learn in class is important but also the knowledge you gain through experiences. I am more than excited to work with Dr. Witt so that I can observe how he does his work and be inspired and learn from him.”

"I have always thought I’ll work in Physics and/or Technology sectors, but there were definitely moments of doubts and uncertainties. However, this experience has allowed me to interact with researchers and helped me better assess my own abilities as well as the research community. This experience overall has helped me become more confident and certain about my career path." Read full interview.

"This experience has consolidated my desire to work in Physics. As an Engineering Physics student, I sit at the cross-section of science and engineering. FYSRE has given me the opportunity to witness the importance of these areas in research. It has opened many doors for me, in terms of career interests and academic pursuits." Read full interview.

“Before this experience, I was worried theoretical physics would be a little bit boring. It is a lot more fun than I expected because it’s not just doing math. It’s actually learning new things all the time and getting that exposure to different things and coming up with new and creative ideas.” Read the full interview. 

Research Publication: From Gyroscopic to Thermal Motion: A Crossover in the Dynamics of Molecular Superrotors (Phys. Rev. X 5, 031041 – Published 23 September 2015).

"FYSRE was an inspiring experience for me. After working in a physics research environment I was reassured that Physics is the field I would like to pursue my career in. FYSRE provided the financial support for me to be able to do research in physics. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work alongside and learn from the bests in field." 

"The Eric Vogt First Year Research Experience has been an amazing chance to find out what working in a research lab entails, and I have learned about things well beyond the scope of any class I've taken so far. It has allowed me to develop my critical thinking, decision making and literature researching skills, many of which are not skills emphasized in first year courses. I am honoured by the award, and am particularly fond of the specification of it going to first year students, for whom it can be extremely difficult to find a paid research position."

Walter later worked in TRIUMF and talked about the FYSRE award in this video. Read more about the inaugural award.