Dr. Ryan Dunlop has been awarded the 2020-21 Ph.D. Thesis Prize by the Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP) of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP).

Ryan completed his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Measurement of \(r\)-process Nuclei \(^{128-130}Cd\) and \(^{131}In\) with the \(\gamma\)-Ray Infrastructure for Fundamental Investigations of Nuclei (GRIFFIN)" at the University of Guelph in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Carl Svensson.

Ryan's thesis [1] focussed on measurements of astrophysically relevant nuclei using the GRIFFIN \(\gamma\)-ray spectrometer at TRIUMF.  The structures of \(N=82\) nuclei below doubly-magic \(^{132}Sn\) are crucial for calculations of the astrophysical \(r\)-process as these isotopes form "waiting-points" that play an important role in the formation and shape of the second \(r\)-process abundance peak.  Many of the most neutron-rich \(N=82\) nuclei are, however, out of reach to the current generation of radioactive beam facilities and their properties must be predicted.  The measurements performed by Ryan helped to resolve a long-standing problem with systematic discrepancies in the calculations of the half-lives of neutron-rich \(N=82\) nuclei.

Ryan has been invited to give a talk at the upcoming 2021 CAP Annual Congress and will receive a cash award of $1,000 from the DNP.  A two-page summary of his thesis work will appear in an upcoming issue of Physics in Canada.