Dr. David Cory
Tools to harness the quantum universe
Inside his new, 10,000-square-foot laboratory at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), David Cory is developing tools for navigating and harnessing the quantum universe.
Called quantum sensors and actuators, these devices will allow unprecedented control over nature’s smallest building blocks, leading toward computing and communication technologies that operate at the atomic scale.
Cory joined IQC earlier this year as a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC), a federal initiative bringing top international scientists to Canada with funding of $10 million per chair over seven years. Of only 19 such positions granted across Canada, the University of Waterloo was awarded two — Cory and Philippe van Cappellen, a renowned expert in ecohydrology.
Cory, during his prior tenure as a professor of nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made significant breakthroughs in quantum information processing by advancing nuclear magnetic resonance methods.
He has a long history of collaboration with IQC scientists and describes Waterloo as “a wonderful environment” in which to pursue leading-edge research.
The reason I was excited to come to the University of Waterloo and the Institute for Quantum Computing was to surround myself with people who share my passion,” said Cory. “There are individuals with great vision pushing these technologies.”
The technologies Cory is developing in his lab will have immediate applications within quantum science, and will eventually lead to the world’s first generation of practical quantum devices. Such technologies, by harnessing the power of quantum mechanics, promise to far exceed the capabilities of the classical technologies we have today.
Explained Cory: “The beneficial outcomes of this community’s work in quantum information processing is that a decade from now there will be quantum devices that will enable us to solve problems we can’t solve today.”
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