Today@Dal

When Dr. Ian Hill and Dr. Arthur McDonald first met a couple decades ago, Hill was an undergrad physics students at Queen’s University and McDonald was his professor.

Both hailed from Nova Scotia and bonded over their shared connection. Now, Hill is acting Dean of the Faculty of Science at Dalhousie University.

And McDonald? Well, he’s a Nobel Laureate.

“I’ve viewed Art as a role model, being also a fellow Nova Scotian in the department, so it means a great deal to me,” Hill said of the prize.

McDonald is originally from Sydney and received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Dalhousie in the 1960s. He made a stop at his alma mater on Monday to give a public lecture.

“I really decided that I liked to do physics when I was here at Dalhousie,” McDonald said.

McDonald eventually went on to head the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a lab created two kilometers underground. His team’s research demonstrated that neutrinos – tiny sub-atomic particles – oscillate on their way to earth from the sun. That finding supported theories that particles could have a mass greater than zero.

For his work, he was named co-recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics and received his award in Sweden last December.

Read more and watch segment (http://globalnews.ca/news/2576810/dalhousie-grad-and-nobel-prize-winner-arthur-mcdonald-makes-stop-at-alma-mater/)