A Queen’s University professor who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in physics is leading an effort by Canadian scientists to produce a simple easy-to-manufacture hospital ventilator.

Dr. Arthur McDonald, and his team of scientists at two national labs, are working to meet an urgent demand for the machines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. McDonald says every country is going to have to have its own made in country solution for ventilators. He says the capability is in the particle physics community.

He is best known for his experimental work involving elusive particles produced in the core of the sun.

How well Canada comes through the COVID-19 pandemic will depend crucially on its supply of ventilators, which are used to keep a patient’s lungs supplied with oxygen when they are unable to breathe on their own.