IQC Director to discuss mentor Stephen Hawking on TVO

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

IQC Director Raymond Laflamme will share recollections and insights on Stephen Hawking during a panel discussion this Friday on TVO.

Raymond Laflamme apperaing on TVO's
Laflamme, who earned his PhD under Hawking’s guidance at Cambridge, will join a panel of leading scientists who have worked with and been influenced by the world’s most famous living physicist.

The discussion, airing Friday at 8pm on TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin,” is a precursor to Hawking’s highly anticipated public lecture at Waterloo’s 
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, which TVO will broadcast at on Sunday, June 20 at 8 p.m.

While studying under Hawking, Laflamme famously proved his supervisor wrong about the direction of time in a contracting universe, earning Laflamme kudos in Hawking’s best-selling book “A Brief History of Time.”
Hawking personalized Laflamme’s copy of the book with the dedication: “To Raymond, who showed that the arrow of time is not a boomerang.”

Hawking is spending six weeks in Waterloo this summer as a distinguished research chair at Perimeter Institute.



Founded in 2002, the mission of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is to aggressively explore and advance the application of quantum mechanical systems to a vast array of relevant information processing techniques.

A part of the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont., Canada, IQC creates a truly unique environment fostering cutting-edge research and collaboration between researchers in the areas of computer, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences.

At the time of this release, IQC has 17 faculty members, 22 postdoctoral fellows and over 55 students and research assistants, as well as a support staff of 18.

The Institute for Quantum Computing acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through Industry Canada and the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation.