The MOU puts 91亚色 researchers in a stronger position to be at the forefront of research in areas of global importance including nanotechnology, advanced materials, bio-informatics, public safety technology and sensors, or any areas where they believe international collaboration will advance their research goals.

The Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, Dr V.K. Saraswat and the Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert聽Hach茅聽sign an MOU between DRDO and 91亚色 for cooperation in the areas of joint research and development in defence science & technology, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, in New Delhi on Nov. 06.

The new framework gives 91亚色 researchers greater opportunity to access funding for international partnerships and benefits research based collaborations by linking 91亚色 researchers with their potential partners from top tier universities in India.

The MOU was signed by Hach茅 and the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Chief of the Defence Organisation, V.K. Saraswat on Nov. 6, in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi, India.

鈥淲e recognize the importance of international research collaborations and synergistic partnerships in building and strengthening research capacity, enhancing opportunities for research training and the sharing of global perspectives,鈥� said Robert Hach茅, 91亚色鈥檚 Vice-President Research & Innovation. 鈥淭his agreement enhances opportunities for international research collaborations that will provide insight into critical scientific issues impacting individuals in both countries and beyond.鈥�

DRDO has a network of 52 laboratories deeply engaged in research with many prestigious universities and research institutions in India, including the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. The agreement is the culmination of close collaborative working and relationships established between leading academic researchers from Canada and India.

鈥淭his is a fantastic opportunity for 91亚色 researchers to forge the type of enduring partnerships that can achieve real results for everyone involved and to work together with international colleagues in developing solutions to some of the greatest challenges we face,鈥� added Janusz Kozinski, dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering.

In 2011, a delegation from 91亚色 took part in a high-level research聽workshop in New Delhi聽co-sponsored by the International Science聽& Technology Partnerships Canada, Global Innovation & Technology Alliance,聽the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research and India's DRDO during a nine-day partnership building .

At the end of last year, it was 91亚色鈥檚 turn to play host to researchers from India at a at the Keele Campus聽where among the topics discussed was 聽鈥楨arly Warning and Advanced Response Network鈥� which concerns detection, identification, quantification and neutralization of harmful substances released in public buildings (e.g., hospitals, schools, shopping malls, airports).

For more research stories, 聽on the homepage.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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Researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in an international collaboration led by Canadians, used microwave spectroscopy 鈥� one of the most sensitive techniques for probing the structure of atoms 鈥� to manipulate antihydrogen. Their work is published today in the prestigious journal, Nature.

Hydrogen is considered the fundamental building block of physics; by comparing it with its antimatter counterpart, scientists hope to answer a crucial question: if antimatter and matter were created in equal amounts during the Big Bang, where did all the antimatter go?

91亚色 physics graduate students Chanpreet Amole and Andrea Capra worked on the experiment and are co-authors on the Nature paper, along with their supervisor, Professor Scott Menary. The collaboration, dubbed ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus experiment), includes scientists from Canada, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Sweden, the UK and the US. Five Canadian institutions are represented: University of Calgary, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, 91亚色 and TRIUMF, Canada鈥檚 national particle and nuclear physics lab.

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Amole and Capra logged 50-hour weeks at CERN in Geneva, preparing the antihydrogen sample and assisting with measurements.

鈥淓very day was a learning experience,鈥� says Amole. 鈥淎t CERN, you get to work with some of the top minds in the world. Many times, [one of the scientists] would casually walk in and strike up a conversation on some very complex, yet interesting physics phenomenon that would just blow your mind.鈥�

The experiment involved confining anti-atoms in a magnetic trap and irradiating them with microwaves. Precise tuning of the microwave frequency and magnetic field enabled researchers to hit an internal resonance that made atoms literally jump out of the trap and reveal information about their properties. Researchers at SFU designed the apparatus for this latest experiment, working closely with PhD candidates Mohammad Ashkezari of SFU and Tim Friesen from the University of Calgary. Meanwhile, researchers from the Vancouver-based TRIUMF laboratory and 91亚色 teased faint signals from a sophisticated detector system, pinpointing matter-antimatter annihilation events.

Menary, professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Physics & Astronomy, , says the current experiment represents the collaboration鈥檚 biggest milestone to date.

鈥淚t was a scientific tour de force just to trap the antihydrogen atoms. Now we鈥檙e actually doing physics with them. This, in my mind, is an even bigger achievement,鈥� he says.

ALPHA-Canada researchers played a key role in two other recent antimatter milestones: in November 2010, ALPHA scientists successfully trapped antihydrogen atoms for the first time, and in June 2011, they demonstrated they could hold on to them for 1,000 seconds.

鈥淔or decades, scientists have wanted to study the intrinsic properties of antimatter atoms in the hope of finding clues that might help answer fundamental questions about our universe,鈥� says lead author Mike Hayden, physicist with SFU. 鈥淚n the middle of the last century, physicists were developing and using microwave techniques to study ordinary atoms like hydrogen. Now, 60 or 70 years down the road, we have just witnessed the first-ever microwave interactions with an anti-atom.鈥�

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