Visitor Centre for the McDonald Institute unveiled in Stirling Hall

The Visitor Centre, highlighting the 2015 Nobel Prize in Astroparticle Physics research by Professor Emeritus and Nobel Laureate Art McDonald and the SNOLAB Collaboration was unveiled on May 11^th in Stirling Hall. It was launched in concert with the  McDonald Institute. 

Along with information on astroparticle physics research, facilities, and developments, there is a virtual reality system set up that will allow visitors to travel through space and experience a solar storm. The centre also offers a reality sandbox to help teach visitors about gravitational fields in an interactive way. The Visitor Centre is open weekdays 9:30 to 4:00 and admission is free.

Education and outreach are very important aspects for the McDonald Institute moving forward. Through the Visitor Centre we can better understand the complex scientific problems and research being conducted by the McDonald Institute in the field of astroparticle physics. By making the ground-breaking research more accessible we can discover how scientists like Tony Noble, Scientific Director of the McDonald Institute, and his colleagues are working to shed light on a dark universe and discover answers to its many mysteries. —Barbara Crow, Dean of Faculty of Arts & Science