NSERC Discovery Grants announcement

Thursday, July 17, 2014

NSERC Discovery Accelerator grant recipients.

A funding announcement was held on campus today, featuring (pictured left to right):

  • Vice-President Research George Dixon
  • Professor Zhongwei Chen (Chemical Engineering)
  • Professor John Watrous (Computer Science)
  • President Feridun Hamdullapur
  • Peter Braid, Member of Parliament (MP) for Kitchener-Waterloo

Professors Chen and Watrous were among nine University of Waterloo researchers to receive research funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Accelerator Supplements grant program. Details are available in this UWaterloo news release.

Professor Watrous spoke at the event, and has kindly shared his remarks:

I’d like to thank the University of Waterloo, the School of Computer Science, the Institute for Quantum Computing, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for supporting leading edge research. Funding from NSERC allows my colleagues and I to take on some of the most challenging research problems of our time, solutions to which have the potential to have profound benefits to our society.

One of those challenging problems is the realization of quantum information technologies, which lie at the intersection of quantum physics and computer science.

The discovery of quantum physics, over a century ago, represents one of the greatest scientific achievements in human history. It is a truly remarkable scientific theory, offering a counter-intuitive and yet highly accurate model of the nanoscopic world. The development of computer science in the last half-century is an equally spectacular achievement: the effect of the information revolution on our lives has been both profound and unmistakable.

Today, quantum physics and computer science come together, resulting in a rich mathematical theory of quantum information and computation — which forms the basis for our research at the Institute for Quantum Computing. The potential for quantum information and computation research is striking: information theoretically secure private communication through quantum key distribution; code-breaking quantum algorithms; and the efficient simulation of complex quantum physical systems are the most well-known of many examples.

My research focuses on the theory of quantum information and computation, including the development of new ways to use quantum computers to process information. One of the central topics of my research is the study of interactions among quantum devices — including the study of how two or more quantum devices may cooperate to accomplish certain tasks. As we progress closer to realizing quantum computers, an understanding of such interactions becomes important — in much the same way that networks of present-day computers are often much more useful than the sum of their parts, we have strong reasons to believe that the same will be true of quantum computers.

The funding for fundamental research provided by NSERC’s Discovery Grant and Accelerator Supplement programs enables me, along with many of my fellow researchers across Canada, to continue to take on these difficult research challenges.

On behalf of my colleagues at the University of Waterloo, I thank Peter Braid, the Government of Canada, and NSERC for their continued support, and for recognizing the importance of our research to Canada’s future.