Chris Ruiz

604-222-7666
Scientist - TRIUMF
Group Member

Chris Ruiz is a Scientist in the Physical Sciences Division, TRIUMF, and the group leader for the DRAGON facility. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Victoria. 

He started out life as a 'wannabe' astronomer, studying a Bachelor's of Science degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh. At the end of his undergraduate degree, Chris got his first taste of experimental nuclear physics through a laboratory project studying Bell's inequality and its ramifications for quantum physics, via a really neat experiment using radioactive sodium-22. From then on he was hooked, taking a PhD with the Edinburgh Nuclear Physics Group, studying prospective indirect methods of obtaining the important ¹⁵O(a,g)¹⁹Ne stellar reaction rate at the Louvain-la-Neuve Cyclotron Research Centre in Belgium, and also the first post-accelerated radioactive beam experiment at ISAC: the resonant elastic scattering of sodium-21 on protons - requiring development of a multi-channel R-matrix code.

Chris then joined the DRAGON group as a Research Associate in 2003, eventually leading the ²⁶Al(p,g)²⁷Si measurement. After a short stint as a Research Associate with the University of York Nuclear Physics Group, heading the TRIUMF side of the development of the SHARC silicon barrel array, Chris was hired as a TRIUMF Board-Appointed Research Scientist in order to head the DRAGON Group in 2007. Since then, Chris has been actively involved in shaping nuclear astrophysics research at the lab along with his colleagues. In addition to the DRAGON project, Chris currently spends time working with the TUDA facility. Chris was the project leader for the ISAC Implantation Station, a facility that allows the preparation of high-quality long-lived radioactive targets for use in charged-particle induced and neutron induced reaction experiments.

Chris is a past Chair of the TRIUMF Users Group Executive Committee and former member of the Subatomic Physics Experimental Evaluation Committee. He is current Chair of the TRIUMF Undergraduate Student Scholarship Selection Committee.

Chris enjoys sailing, snowboarding, playing classical, folk and rock guitar, rock climbing, scuba diving, shooting, and attempting to cultivate an organic garden. He is also a motorcycle enthusiast.