Alumni Reflections: Ottawa Branch President, Jenn Pelley, MPA'09, on hosting Queen’s Nobel Laureate

Last week, I met my first Nobel Laureate. Besides a quip about how he’s the modern day Albert Einstein but with better hair, I tried not to fangirl too much, with moderate success.

It all unfolded in Ottawa on March 10 to honour Queen’s Professor Emeritus, Dr. Arthur McDonald, for winning the Nobel Prize in physics in November 2015 for his discovery that neutrinos change identities and therefore have mass. He was in Canada’s capital that day to be formally recognized for his achievement and contribution to science in the House of Commons.

Approximately 200 alumni, students, and other friends of Queen’s gathered at the Chateau Laurier to celebrate the accomplishments of Dr. McDonald and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory team.

I was given the great honour of emceeing the event. I must admit, this caused a few twinges of nervousness. I can say with the highest degree of certainty that I didn’t even know neutrinos existed until I was doing some research on Dr. McDonald before the event.  And I’m no more confident now than I was before my research in my knowledge of what exactly it is they do or don’t do, despite a rather helpful analogy related to hockey pucks versus peanuts that Dr. McDonald employed Tuesday evening to help non-physicists understand his research and subsequent discovery. So I was definitely feeling out of my wheelhouse.

But upon settling into my introductions, the pleasure I felt being able to properly recognize and celebrate Dr. McDonald’s accomplishment surpassed the nerves. And, really, who was I kidding? I was obviously going to leave the discussion of neutrinos to the expert.  

We often celebrate accomplishments, as they should indeed be celebrated! But very rarely is there the opportunity to celebrate an achievement of this magnitude. To see the Queen’s community in Ottawa come together in pride and admiration for a breakthrough in research by one of our own was heartwarming, to say the least.

The honour of receiving a Nobel Prize is unlikely for most of us, but having a member of the Queen’s research community contribute to fundamental science on an international scale is something we can all take pride in. The dedication to research Dr. McDonald and his team had to have demonstrates the boldness, ingenuity, and creativity that makes me proud to be a Queen’s graduate and an alumni branch volunteer.

Dr. McDonald, on behalf of the Ottawa Branch of the Queen’s University Alumni Association and all Queen’s alumni in Ottawa, thank you for your work and your commitment, and congratulations!    

Jenn Pelley, MPA’09
Ottawa Branch President
Queen’s University Alumni Association