Vice President, Research and International (pro tem), Simon Fraser University
Dugan O’Neil was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick, obtained a BSc. at the University of New Brunswick, an MSc. at the University of Alberta and PhD in physics at the University of Victoria. As a professor of physics at Simon Fraser University, his research has focused on the search for new particles and interactions at high energy particle colliders at Fermilab and CERN. From single top quarks to Higgs bosons, his contributions have tended to focus on the “big data” problem of extraction of small signals from large backgrounds.
In addition to his work as a particle physicist, O’Neil has played a leadership role in building Canada’s Digital Research Infrastructure, through work with WestGrid and Compute Canada. This includes spending three years (2014-2017) as Compute Canada’s Chief Science Officer. At SFU, he has served as principal investigator of the institution’s advanced research computing efforts since 2010. SFU has recently built Supercomputer Cedar, one of Canada’s most powerful academic supercomputers. O’Neil served as SFU’s Associate Vice-President, Research from 2017-2020.
