The Canada Council for the Arts has awarded a Killam Research Fellowship to University of Waterloo physics professor Michel Gingras.
WATERLOO, Ont. (Friday, Feb. 24, 2012) - The Canada Council for the Arts has awarded a Killam Research Fellowship to University of Waterloo physics professor Michel Gingras.
The fellowship will enable Gingras to pursue studies in the area of highly frustrated magnetic materials. The research has the potential to lead to the development of fundamental principles that may pave the way for breakthroughs in areas such as room temperature superconductivity and drug design. It explores the physics at work in condensed states of matter, such as the dense and highly structured proton and neutron matter in neutron stars, and in various magnetic systems where more than one interaction is at play and therefore frustrate and negate the effect of each other.
"The study of magnetic systems and magnetic materials has historically allowed scientists to reach a broad understanding of the principles that govern how conventional matter organizes itself when one interaction, or force, is prevalent,” said Gingras. “Our understanding of those principles in matter when there is more than one force at play is at its infancy. . . . As in life, physics shows that a little frustration makes life more interesting."
Gingras was among seven Canadian researchers whose institutions will receive $70,000 per year over the course of the two-year fellowship. He holds a senior Canada Research Chair in the area of Condensed Matter Physics and Statistical Mechanics at Waterloo. Gingras was awarded the Canadian Association of Physicists Herzberg Medal (2001) and Brockhouse Medal (2009), as well as a E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2003) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He is also a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
“This award of a Killam Fellowship to Michel Gingras is marvellous news which continues the impressive tradition of awards of these prestigious fellowships to members of the Faculty of Science at Waterloo,” said Terrance McMahon, dean of science at Waterloo. “This recognition of professor Gingras also draws attention to the high calibre, forefront research being carried out in general in the Faculty of Science, which consistently leads the University of Waterloo in annual research income.”
"Independent research allows professors to focus on areas where real-world applications may not be immediately evident. Discoveries that are difficult to fully comprehend now will likely be the ones that lead to transformative changes in the world in coming decades," said Gingras. “I’m sure that when Einstein developed the general theory of relativity there was no insight of how that could be applied, and ultimately be of relevance to the usefulness of GPS in our cell phones.”
University of Waterloo professors have now been awarded Killam fellowships 19 times since the program originated in 1968. The most recent fellowship winners were chemistry professor R.T. Oakley in 2006 and biology professor Marilyn Griffith in 2003.
The annual Killam fellowships and prizes are at the top level of academic awards and scholarships funded by the Killam Trusts, which have been in existence since the death of Dorothy J. Killam in 1965.
Image: Michel Gingras, Faculty of Science.
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Waterloo news release no. 16
