A graduate student at Waterloo Engineering is the inaugural winner of a new scholarship for women in the field of quantum information science.
Cindy Yang, who is doing a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, has had a passion for acoustic and superconducting waves since learning how to make photonic devices.
Cindy Yang is a master's student at Waterloo Engineering.
She will receive $7,500 as winner of the Raymond Laflamme and Janice Gregson Graduate Scholarship for Women in Quantum Information Science.
“Quantum research is challenging,” Yang said in a media release. “A lot of time research work can feel trivial, but in quantum, any little step is big. It’s a lot of firsts. I’m so thankful for this scholarship because it will allow me to focus on my research. I have a lot of learning to do.”
Raymond Laflamme was executive director of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo from 2002 until 2017. Janice Gregson is his partner.
The new scholarship honours their efforts to help make the IQC one of the leading quantum information research institutes in the world.
It goes to a female IQC graduate student who has achieved academic excellence and shows strong potential as a researcher.
Laflamme, an Officer of the Order of Canada, described Yang as the type of curious researcher who will shape the future in the field of quantum information, noting that scientific discoveries are made when people with a wide variety of ideas and perspectives come together to think critically and investigate.