Arthur McDonald, a Queen’s University professor who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, is leading an effort by Canadian scientists at two national laboratories to produce a stripped-down, easy-to-manufacture hospital ventilator in time to meet an urgent demand for the machines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers at the TRIUMF particle accelerator in Vancouver and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories at Chalk River, Ont., are now aiming to complete two working prototypes of their ventilator, one at each location, over the coming week.
“We feel that every country is going to have to have its own made-in-country solution for ventilators," said Dr. McDonald, who is best known for his experimental work involving neutrinos, elusive particles produced in the core of the sun. “The idea is that the capability is here in the particle physics community. We’re just trying to exploit it.”