A Unique Thanksgiving Experience

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Dr. Rajabali and two of his students experienced a non-traditional Thanksgiving in the TRIUMF Laboratory in Canada. Under Rajabali’s lead, Dakota Moya (sophomore electrical engineer) and Ethan White (freshman physics major), participated in a nuclear physics experiment.

The experiment is based on a very difficult to produce and rare isotope, 35Mg. It was produced using a combination of a very large cyclotron particle-accelerator and a state-of-the-art laser ion source. The 35Mg produced would have existed for a fraction of a second when the solar system was formed. The team measured the particles’ decay and products in the lab using the equipment pictured above – a part of which Dr. Rajabali built through funding from a Department of Energy Grant – to produce data that has never been seen before.

To round out their important work, they managed to squeeze in a unique Thanksgiving dinner of sushi before returning to their experiment. What an exceptional and unique Thanksgiving provided courtesy of Dr. Mustafa Rajabali.