I am greeted daily by three giant banners attached to the south side of our laboratory wing announcing Donna Strickland’s 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. I was pleased to attend the ceremonies in Stockholm with nearly two dozen faculty, administrators, staff, and invited guests. We were there to celebrate and support Donna as she shared the Prize with Gerard Mourou and Arthur Ashkin. Donna was honoured for her ground-breaking invention of Chirped-Pulse Amplification, a technique that has enabled high-intensity laser systems with applications in fundamental physics, medicine, manufacturing, and other fields. Watching Donna whisked away from the Grand Hotel to the ceremony brought joy and pride to my heart that would be impossible to describe. The Nobel Lectures were probably my favourite events of the week. Donna’s Nobel lecture was a gem: engaging, witty, informative. We are mostly back to normal, but things will never be the same.
Exciting things are happening in 2019. Physics is planning for a new building. The west office wing, the center of activity during your time at Waterloo, will eventually be razed and replaced with a beautiful, semi-circular research wing attached to the rectangular laboratory wing. I don’t think of it as a building with offices and classrooms. It will energize the department with an open design concept intended to stimulate interactivity between faculty, students, and staff. Our goal is simple: to enable breakthroughs in research and education. Connected to the new wing will be the Science Centre for Innovation, a laboratory focussing primarily on materials, biomedical, and water research. The building designs are in flux. Stay tuned.
This issue of The Entangler includes several articles describing exciting new developments. We congratulate Ray Laflamme who, in January, was awarded the Order of Canada for his research and service to quantum computing. Having recently stepped away from the directorship of IQC, Ray has been appointed the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis John Von Neumann Chair in physics. Ray co-founded and led the development of IQC into the research machine it is today. As a Distinguished Chair, Ray is reenergizing his exceptional research career.
Judy McDonnell, who shepherded many of you through your graduate studies, is retiring after 22 years of distinguished service. I worked closely with Judy when I served as Graduate Officer and Graduate Program Director. She is a joy to work with. Thank you Judy. I wish you the best for the future.
Physics alumnus Kartik Talwar was named to the 2019 Forbes Under 30 list. George Pinho of Christie Medical and Rob Myers, Director of Perimeter Institute, each received the Faculty of Science Distinguished Alumni Award. Graduate students Andrew Cameron and Anna Golubeva are breaking new ground in quantum information and condensed matter physics. Golubeva and Daniel Grimmer recently received prestigious Vanier Scholarships to apply machine learning to problems in condensed matter theory and to study quantum decoherence.
By the time you read this you will have heard news about the first image of a supermassive black hole. Avery Broderick, professor of Physics & Astronomy, is a leading member of the Event Horizon Telescope. An event horizon is the defining feature of a black hole, a bizarre object predicted by General Relativity. Broderick and his team produced the first event horizon image of the supermassive black hole residing in the nucleus of the distant galaxy M87. I encourage you to read about this historic discovery in this edition of The Entangler. Enjoy!
