South Rustico Sea of Hope Al Anon

Sebastien Roy-Garand will spend the next couple of months boldly going where few men have gone before.

The 19-year-old Indian River resident is working in Vancouver, B.C., this summer as a St. Mary’s University research student at TRIUMF, a world-renowned laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. The opportunity was made possible by an undergraduate research scholarship awarded to Roy-Garand by the Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics, which will cover his wages during his time there.

“It’s more of a research experience than a job offer. I’m technically not getting paid by TRIUMF nor am I a co-op student,’’ he clarifies.

Roy-Garand is thrilled with his decision to join the team at TRIUMF — Canada’s particle accelerator centre and home to the world’s largest cyclotron. He’ll be working on a couple of different Sebastien Roy-Garand, left, is working this summer as a Saint Mary’s University research student at TRIUMF, a world-renowned national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. He is working on the IRIS experiment with Preetinder Kaur Jassal, a SMU graduate student; Greg Hackman, a TRIUMF scientist; Rituparna Kanungo, IRIS and CANREB leader; Matthias Holl, IRIS post-doctoral researcher, and Conor Waterfield, a SMU undergraduate student.

complex projects during his time there, including the CANREB-ARIEL project (Canadian Rare-isotope facility with electron beam ion source; Advanced

Rare Isotope Laboratory). He will also be involved with the IRIS experiment — an innovative rare isotope reaction spectroscopy station led by SMU and located at the UBC-based TRIUMF, one of only three subatomic research facilities around the globe specializing in producing extremely intense beams of particle.

Roy-Garand, who will enter his third year of a bachelor of science degree in astrophysics at SMU this fall, has been interested in science for as long as he can remember. His parents, MarieAnne Roy and Greg Garand, have nurtured, encouraged and supported their only son throughout his formative years, gifting him with a plethora of science-related books, toys, puzzles and Lego.

But there’s one book in particular that stands out in his mind.

“When I was five or six, my parents gave me a French book about space for Christmas, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever,’’ he fondly recalls. “But on the last page of the book, there was a picture of an alien which scared me to death. But I’d still go to space if the opportunity ever presented itself.’’

It wasn’t until his graduating

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