Mount Allison University physics professor Dr. David Hornidge and his subatomic research group have received a $400,000 grant from ResearchNB’s Impact Fund to develop advanced particle-detector instrumentation for the international Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
The provincial award supports Mount Allison’s role within a broader Canadian university consortium backed by a $5.34 million Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant led by the University of Manitoba alongside co-applicants at Mount Allison University, the University of Regina, and the University of Victoria.
Developing Calorimeter Detector Hardware and AI Simulations
Scheduled to begin collider operations in the mid-2030s, the Electron-Ion Collider will collide high-energy electrons with protons and heavy ions to investigate the internal structure of matter and the origins of proton mass and spin.
Dr. Hornidge’s team in Sackville, New Brunswick, is contributing hardware testing, computer modelling, and artificial intelligence and machine learning simulations for the facility’s barrel calorimeter detector, while also exploring applied engineering collaboration with New Brunswick Community College (NBCC).
Hands-On Undergraduate Physics Research Training
Unlike large institutions where particle-accelerator instrumentation is reserved primarily for doctoral candidates, the Mount Allison Department of Physics integrates undergraduate students directly into detector electronics, data acquisition, and international accelerator experiments, including annual summer research placements in Mainz, Germany.
Dr. Hornidge noted that early laboratory responsibility prepares Mount Allison undergraduates for top graduate schools and high-tech industry careers, citing a former undergraduate researcher who spent three years working on the EIC project at Mount Allison before advancing to a PhD program at MIT; students interested in undergraduate science research in Canada can contact our education team to learn more about Mount Allison University.