Institutes, Groups and Facilities
Working together to advance research across the globe.
Internal facilities
Researchers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy have access to a wide range of modern instrumentation and facilities. Most of our internal facilities are located within Science B on campus. These facilities include:
- Two space physics laboratories
- Isotope science laboratory
- Extensive computational facilities
The Radiation Oncology Group is situated in the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, while the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Group is housed at the Seaman Family MR Research Centre.
External facilities map
Click image to open Google Maps.
The department's Astronomy and Astrophysics Group visit and utilize a range of national and international observatories.
- Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
- Mt. Laguna Observatory in San Diego, California, United States of America
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array (VLA) on the Plains of San Augustin, New Mexico, United States of America
- Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Kitt Peak, Arizona, United States of America
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)
- Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO)
- Sub-millimeter Array (SMA)
- Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)
- IRAM 30m Telescope in Pico Veleta, Spain
- Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Llano Chajnantor, Chile
- Atacama Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Llano Chajnantor, Chile
- Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) near La Serena, Chile
- Las Campanas Observatory (UTSO) near La Serena, Chile
- European Souther Observatory (ESO) on La Silla, Chile
- Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico
- Australia Telescope National Facility in Narrabri, Australia
- Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) in Zwiggelte, the Netherlands
- Giant Meter Wave Radio Telescope in Pune, India
- Herschel Space Observatory located at the L2 lagrangian point
- NASA's Rossi X-ray Explorer (RXTE)
- NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
- JAXA's Suzaku X-ray Observatory
- ESA's XMM Newton X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission Observer
- NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE)
- ROSAT, Roentgen Satellite
- Japan's ASCA X-ray Astronomy Mission Satellite
- Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
Experimentalists in the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Group are involved in two of Canada's newest major atomic and molecular science installations, the Canadian Light Source (CLS) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Internationally, the facilities used by department members are CERN: the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, the facilities at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, the Control Engineering Laboratory at the University of Oulu, Finland, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasedena, California, United States of America.
The Auroral Imaging Group operates an array of ground-based instrumentation across Canada.
Researchers within the department's Environmental Physics and Isotope Science Group currently make use of the John de Laeter Centre for Isotope Research in Perth, Western Australia.
Members of the department's Space Physics Group use a number of national and international facilities including the Bristol Aerospace Ltd payload assembly and test facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the CSA David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the Andoya Rocket Range in Andoya, Norway, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) spacecraft assembly facility in Sagamihara, Japan, the Uchinoura Launch Facility, Kagoshima Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan, NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, United States of America, the NASA Poker Flat Research Range in Poker Flat, Alaska, United States of America., Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar in Poker Flat, Alaska, United States of America, and the Resolute Incoherent Scatter Radar in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada.