IQC student Kent Fisher has earned the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to help enable cutting-edge research and international collaboration.
The scholarship — one of 156 awarded Tuesday to exceptional young scientists across Canada — will assist Fisher in his quantum optics research, as well as enable him to travel to international scientific conferences and workshops.
Since the 2009 launch of the Vanier program (named in recognition of former Canadian Governor General Georges Philias Vanier — the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded 660 of the scholarships. Fisher was one of 10 University of Waterloo students to earn the funding this year.
"It's certainly a great honour to have NSERC invest in me like this," said Fisher. "It's an affirmation that the career and academic path I'm on is a good choice for me."
Fisher is currently focused on quantum optics research aimed at implementing a theoretical protocol for a secure form of quantum computing in a centralized server.
"It's an important stepping stone," explained Fisher, "since we are daily getting closer to a time when one or two quantum computers might be available, but in high demand from multiple users."