Prof. Christine Muschik recognized for work in Quantum Information
Thirteen early-career researchers with exceptional leadership potential will join four Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) research programs. Christine Muschik, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), has been selected as a 2020-2022 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar.
The CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program promotes interdisciplinary interactions, leadership development, and engagement in global communities. The program supports outstanding early-career researchers with a collaborative 24-month program focusing on new approaches to gain understanding on the most important questions facing humanity.
As an expert in the theory of quantum communication and quantum simulation, Christine will join the Quantum Information Research Program, where she'll develop new generators of quantum simulators that will advance fundamental particle interactions. Her research addresses important open questions such as, "Why is there more matter than anti-matter, and hence, why do we exist?"
Zoya Leonenko appointed as 2020 University Research Chair
The University of Waterloo recognizes the exceptional achievement and pre-eminence of faculty members and professors in their particular field of knowledge with the designation 'University Research Chair'. Faculty members with this title receive either an annual stipend of $10,000 or a teaching reduction of one course per year, in order to pursue their research goals.
Prof. Zoya Leonenko leads a nanoscale biophysics research group which uses advanced scanning probe microscopy methods to study biophysics of lipids and lipid-protein interactions, interactions of nanoparticles with lipid membrane and monolayers, and to develop novel application of lipid films in biomedical nanotechnology and biosensing.
Waterloo Ph.D. candidate, Matthew Robbins, is awarded the Stoicheff Scholarship
The 2020 Boris P. Stoicheff Memorial Graduate Scholarship - Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) was awarded to Matthew Robbins, University of Waterloo, for leadership in developing the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates as a novel detector of gravitational waves that would open a new window on the universe for astronomical observations.
Matthew Robbins is a third-year PhD student at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. For his thesis, Matthew is investigating the theoretical physics behind using a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) to detect gravitational waves. The ultimate objective of his research is to understand what experimental configuration(s) and features are necessary in a BEC for it to be used as gravitational waves detector.
The Boris P. Stoicheff Memorial Graduate Scholarship was established jointly by the CAP Foundation and the OSA Foundation as a memorial to Boris P. Stoicheff, an eminent, internationally renowned laser spectroscopist who also served as President of the Canadian Association of Physicists (1983-84) and the Optical Society of America (1976). The joint CAPF/OSAF scholarship is awarded to a graduate student who has demonstrated both research excellence and significant service to the optics (OSAF) or physics (CAP) community.
Alex Krolewski wins the AMTD Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Waterloo to explore the origin and composition of the universe
The AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship is a limited program made possible by a generous donation from the AMTD Foundation, led by alumnus Cavin Choi. Fellowships will be available over the next five years, dedicated to support exceptional scholars who are prepared to lead in a future that promises both great opportunity and waves of disruption. Alex joins three other AMTD Scholars in the program's inaugural year.
Alex is just starting his 3 year postdoctoral fellowship in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo, where the AMTD fellowship will make it possible to work closely with collaborators around the world. During his time at Waterloo, he will be working with physics and astronomy professor Will Percival, who is currently involved with multiple large-scale surveys of the galaxies in our universe. In particular, Krolewski plans to use data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to learn about and answer the questions “What causes the universe’s expansion to accelerate” and “What is the mass of the neutrino?”
Governor General Silver Medal: Frank Corapi, BSc ‘20 Honours Physics and Astronomy, Co-op
Frank Corapi finished his undergraduate degree in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo this past spring. For all his hard work, Frank has been awarded The Governor General Silver Medal; one of three such medals given at each Convocation to graduates with the highest academic standing across the University.
During his career at UWaterloo, Frank embraced every research experience he could get. In addition to a wide variety of undergraduate lab courses, Frank won an internship at the Perimeter Institute. He spent one work term working on the initial stages of a project whose ultimate goal was to extract information about black holes. He later worked with Dr. Melanie Campbell in her optics research lab, collecting data to support early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
Now a graduate of the University of Waterloo, he is working towards a PhD with Dr. Joseph Thywissen of the University of Toronto in a field that he describes as a mixture of experimental and theoretical physics. In Thywissen’s lab, Frank studies the interactions between ultracold fermionic potassium atoms, trapped within an optical lattice, by imaging them using a high-resolution quantum gas microscope.
NSERC honours Donna Strickland with a new prize for research excellence
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is honouring Canada’s most recent science Nobel laureates by launching prizes in their names that will highlight Canadian research excellence.
Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland joins Arthur B. McDonald from Queen’s University in being honoured with major prize awards named after them. NSERC noted that they are proud to celebrate those whose breakthrough discoveries have led to international prestige beyond our borders, and look to them as an inspiration as Canada continues to push the frontiers of knowledge.
Valued at $250,000, the NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research will be awarded annually to an individual or team whose outstanding research has led to exceptional benefits for Canadian society, the environment and/or the economy. Any NSERC-funded researcher, regardless of their career stage, can be nominated for this award for research conducted in Canada.
The call for nominations for the inaugural NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research will be announced later this year.
Professor Crystal Senko awarded Canada Research Chair in Trapped Ion Quantum Computing
Canada Research Chairs is a collaborative program created in 2000 between the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Its purpose is to attract and retain a diverse group of world-class researchers, to make Canada one of the world's top countries in research and development. Chairholders aim to achieve research excellence, improve our depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthen our international campetitiveness, and help train the next generation of world-class researchers.
Crystal and her research team are developing techniques that will enable error correction using the most robust quantum computing hardware available: trapped ions. They are creating new techniques for encoding quantum information using the complex internal structures of trapped ions and for reading a subset of the quantum information encoded in a quantum computer without destroying other information. She joins 15 other University of Waterloo Science Professors in this distinguished program, and is one of nine professors across Waterloo appointed in 2020.
