Thursday, September 15, 2011
IQC postdoctoral fellow Brendon Higgins has been awarded the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Higgins, a native of Australia whose research at IQC focuses on experimental approaches to quantum cryptography, said he is "very honoured" to receive the fellowship, valued at $70,000 per year over two years.
“It’s a great privilege to be ranked amongst such a consummate group of young researchers,” said 27-year-old Higgins, who completed his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies at Griffith University in Brisbane. “It’s nice to know my work has been valued so highly.”
This is the inaugural year for the fellowship, to be granted to 70 exceptional early-career scholars across Canada annually.
The fellowship will help support Higgins’ research into long-distance implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD), particularly the development of secure global communications networks connected by satellite.
Along with the financial support it provides, Higgins says the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship will have intangible benefits for his research career. “It will be a great boost for my profile and the visibility of my work,” he said.
The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships are distributed equally across Canada's three federal granting agencies: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
For more information, visit the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship website.