Measures distant objects and phenomena in space with
unprecedented accuracy
QUEBEC, Feb. 20, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - ABB announced today
that its collaborative partnership with Université Laval for the SITELLE project as well as all
previous projects such as SpIOMM have been recognized by the
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) with a 2017 Synergy Award for
Innovation.
The prestigious award was presented to Dr. Laurent Drissen (Université Laval) and Dr. Frederic Grandmont (ABB Measurement &
Analytics) by David Johnston,
Governor General of Canada, during a on February 7 at Rideau Hall. The award winners
spent much of the day at the Canadian Parliament where they
met with Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, Kirsty Duncan,
Minister of Science, and Mario
Pinto, president of NSERC.
The annual Synergy Awards for Innovation recognize examples of
collaboration that stand as a model of effective partnership
between industry and colleges or universities. Laurent Drissen, professor at Department of
Physics, Physical Engineering and Optics and Astrophysics Research
Group partnered with ABB with the ambitious goal of building a new
instrument that would allow astronomers to see distant phenomena
with incredible details.
In 2005, Laurent Drissen and ABB
had introduced the SpIOMM imaging Fourier transform spectrometer, a
device with a telescope from the Mont-Mégantic Observatory,
allowing to see the spectrum of every source of light in a
field of view a hundred times larger than other spectrometers.
Drissen and ABB's new technology were so impressive they were soon
commissioned to build a second instrument, even more powerful
than the SITELLE device, now used by astronomers at the
Canada–France–Hawaii (CFHT) telescope in Hawaii.
"Investments in research and development are a big deal here,
and help to create the economy of tomorrow. Our goal was to make a
breakthrough in astronomy. We wanted to demonstrate that with the
technology we had in Fourier transform, we could produce a
technological shift that would benefit the scientific community."
said Marc Corriveau, General Manager
at ABB Measurement & Analytics, Quebec, Canada in the Synergy Award video.
SITELLE started scientific operations at the CFHT on
March 3, 2016. It is the most
complicated instrument to be operated in Queued Service
Observations at CFHT. The instrument has the capabilities of both
an imager and a spectrograph and generates millions of spectra
during a single scan. There are very few instruments in the world
that are capable of achieving this.
"The fact that SITELLE is accessible to researchers from
different countries across the world is also very important. We
didn't want a device that was just built for us, for our team. The
more people across the world that will use it, the better it will
be for us, for ABB, and for the larger scientific community as
well." mentioned Laurent Drissen in
the Synergy Award video.
For more details about the Award:
http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Prizes-Prix/Synergy-Synergie/Profiles-Profils/Drissen-Drissen_eng.asp
Follow SITELLE adventures by reading these scientific publications
relating its discovery:
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Instruments/Sitelle/SITELLE_publications.php
About ABB
ABB's Measurement & Analytics business
unit is among the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of
instrumentation and analyzers. With thousands of experts around the
world and high performance technology, ABB's team is dedicated to
making measurement easy for its customers.
ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader in
electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial
automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities,
industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing
more than a 125-year history of innovation, ABB today is writing
the future of industrial digitalization and driving the Energy and
Fourth Industrial Revolutions. ABB operates in more than 100
countries with about 132,000 employees www.abb.com
SOURCE ABB inc.