Nigel J. Smith

Nigel Smith is a British Canadian astroparticle physicist and the Executive Director and CEO at TRIUMF.

Education Nigel Smith obtained both his undergraduate and graduate degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. He studied cosmic and gamma rays for his PhD and undertook experimental research in Antarctica where he was the sole operator of the South Pole Air Shower Experiment (SPASE) at the South Pole. In 1998, he became the first Briton to ‘winter-over’ at the South Pole, where he was the sole operator of a detector array used in a study of very high energy cosmic rays.

Prior to working at TRIUMF, between 2009 and 2021 Smith was the Executive Director at SNOLAB, developing the capabilities of Canada’s deep underground research facility. SNOLAB is 2070m underground in the Vale Creighton mine near Sudbury, Ontario, and hosts searches for dark matter and studies of neutrino properties.

Throughout his career, Smith has worked in extreme environments to pursue his research. He has led multiple teams at facilities internationally and international research collaborations.

Awards and honours In 2010, Smith is chartered physicist in both Canada and the U.K. a member of the Canadian Association of Physics, the Institute of Physicists, and a fellow at the Royal Astronomical Society.

Publications

Alner, G., Araújo, H., Bewick, A., Bungau, C., Camanzi, B., Carson, M., Cashmore, R., Chagani, H., Chepel, V., Cline, D., Davidge, D., Davies, J., Daw, E., Dawson, J., Durkin, T., Edwards, B., Gamble, T., Gao, J., Ghag, C.. . . Wolfs, F. (2007). "First limits on WIMP nuclear recoil signals in ZEPLIN-II: A two-phase xenon detector for dark matter detection". Astroparticle Physics, 28(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2007.06.002 Smith, N., Murphy, A., & Sumner, T. (2006). Reply to: “Critical revision of the ZEPLIN-I sensitivity to WIMP interactions.” Physics Letters B, 642(5–6), 567–569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2006.09.039 Lebedenko, V. N., Araújo, H. M., Barnes, E. J., Bewick, A., Cashmore, R., Chepel, V., Currie, A., Davidge, D., Dawson, J., Durkin, T., Edwards, B., Ghag, C., Horn, M., Howard, A. S., Hughes, A. J., Jones, W. G., Joshi, M., Kalmus, G. E., Kovalenko, A. G.. . . Walker, R. J. (2009). "Results from the first science run of the ZEPLIN-III dark matter search experiment". Physical Review D, 80(5). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.80.052010 Abbott, B., Abbott, R., Abbott, T., Abernathy, M., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adams, T., Addesso, P., Adhikari, R., Adya, V., Affeldt, C., Agathos, M., Agatsuma, K., Aggarwal, N., Aguiar, O., Aiello, L., Ain, A., Ajith, P.. . . Zweizig, J. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Physical Review Letters, 116(6). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.116.061102