The 7th TRIUMF-KEK Scientific Symposium was held on September 28 and 29, 2026 at TRIUMF in Vancouver, Canada. This was the first time the symposium had been held in Canada since the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous symposium was held in January 2025 at KEK. There were over 40 researchers in attendance, led by Dr. Nigel Smith, Executive Director & CEO of TRIUMF Inc. and Dr. Shoji Asai, Director General of KEK.
In addition to representatives from KEK and TRIUMF, Mr. Yoshiaki Takahashi, Consul General of Japan in Vancouver, and Mr. Hiroto Esaki, First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Canada, also attended the symposium. As 2026 marks the fortieth anniversary of Canada-Japan Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology, Consul General Takahashi delivered remarks expressing his hope for the further development of collaboration between KEK and TRIUMF.
This symposium has been regularly held alternately at KEK and TRIUMF since the “Japan-Canada 80th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations Particle Accelerator Science Symposium” in 2008, serving as an official communication platform between the institutions.
At the symposium, the leaders from both institutions made reports on the status and prospects of research activities at their own institutions. Researchers also reported on work in a range of fields, including particle physics experiments using muons, neutrino research, accelerator technology, quantum science, and materials science. In addition, presentations covered the Belle II experiment hosted by KEK and ARIEL (the Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory), a new experimental facility at TRIUMF. At the sessions for each research field, they discussed the future cooperation between the institutions.
The symposium also included a session on EPECR (TRIUMF–KEK Exchange Program for Early Career Researchers), in which former participants reported on their experiences under the program.
During the directorate meeting between the executives of both institutions, participants discussed prospects for further collaboration. As part of the meeting, QUP (the International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles) at KEK and TRIUMF signed a letter of intent expressing their mutual interest in cooperating on research related to the antimatter gravity studies.
