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The Canada Foundation for Innovation has awarded $14.25 million to a national project led by Bruce Gaulin with the Department of Physics & Astronomy.

The reactor is Canada’s only source for neutrons and supports the work of hundreds of scientists, engineers, and students in more than 40 Canadian institutions.

Potential benefits of the research include technologies to reduced greenhouse gas emissions; enhanced reliability and competitiveness of Canadian nuclear power and auto parts manufacturing industries; knowledge to aid the fight against cancer, Alzheimer’s, and antibiotic resistance; and knowledge of quantum materials that could enable breakthroughs in information technology devices.

“Neutron scattering really is a vehicle for the creation of knowledge about materials,” says Bruce, who is the Brockhouse Chair in the Physics of Materials. “Once understood, the materials — and therefore the technology they enable — can be optimized and improved to better our quality of lives.”

The project will advance research and innovation in areas such as materials for clean energy technology, the structural integrity of components of vehicles or nuclear power plants, biomaterials for understanding and combating disease, and materials for information technology.

“On behalf of our many partners, I would like to thank the CFI for recognizing the importance of this project, which is indeed building a future for Canadian neutron scattering,” says Karen Mossman, Vice-president, Research.

“Constructing the additional neutron beamlines at the MNR will sustain Canada’s status as a world leader in materials research and technology development and will allow us to train the next generation of scientists and engineers here at home.”

The Canada Foundation for Innovation awarded more than $35 million to five projects at McMaster and more than $518 million in research infrastructure funding across Canada.