Dr Arthur B. McDonald, Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOLab)
Dr Arthur B. McDonald, Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOLab)

By Angela Gemmill

A Canadian researcher, with a Sudbury connection, is a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.

Arthur B. McDonald, a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston has won this year’s physics award with a Japanese researcher for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which show that neutrinos have mass.

Neutrinos are particles that whiz through the universe at nearly the speed of light.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the pair had made key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities like a chameleon.

McDonald has been the Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOLAB) since 1989.

He will split the almost $1.3-million (Cdn) prize with his co-winner, Takaaki Kajita.