Art McDonald on the state of science in Canada

On Tuesday, Art McDonald—the Nova Scotia-born astrophysicist—visited Parliament Hill to be recognized for his Nobel Prize win for his discoveries about neutrinos stemming from his underground lab in Sudbury. “For us to be recognized in this way, it really makes us very pleased to have been able to accomplish this in Canada,” he said. “We hope that it’s an inspiration for younger scientists, younger people who’d like to be scientists in Canada to understand that you can do it here.”

In a scrum after question period, a reporter asked McDonald about whether he had a message to parliamentarians about funding science and research. Here was his answer:

Well, actually, I’m hearing very good things about the directions that are being taken on science and science funding. I think openness with respect to science is very important. I think the support for both basic and applied science is very important, and I’m hearing good words with respect to that as we’re going forward. And so I would say keep going in that direction. It’s very important for the country. Our international competitiveness is very important, that we work at science and technology as a substantial part of Canada’s activities. We were very successful in an international collaboration, and I think that’s what’s necessary for the future as well.

Read our full profile of McDonald and his work here.