Nobel winner extends IQC committment

His official title is Sir Anthony Leggett, Nobel Prize winner in Physics.

But within the Institute for Quantum Computing, where he spends every summer as a visiting scholar, he is known by most simply as Tony.

Despite his many scientific achievements and accolades, Leggett is regarded as an approachable peer and helpful mentor during his summer sojourns as IQC’s Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Distinguished Research Chair.

Last summer was the final installment of his five-year commitment to IQC, but at his farewell fete, it was announced that Leggett’s position at the institute had been extended for another five years.

Leggett says he deeply values the relationships he has built at the University of Waterloo. He always keeps his mind — and his office door — wide open, hoping to gain and share new ideas.

“I find it very stimulating to make contact between my existing personal expertise — which is mainly in condensed matter physics and quantum foundations — with some of the exciting developments going on in quantum information science.”

Arriving at the institute by bicycle each day, the British-born Leggett delivers lectures on a variety of topics in quantum mechanics (YouTube), typically spending time with IQC researchers afterward for discussion and debate.

Naturally, IQC is honoured to host a Nobel Laureate each year — and the honour, Leggett insists, is mutual. “It’s probably no exaggeration to say that IQC has established itself as the leading institution in the world in the field of quantum information,” says Leggett, who is based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“While there are, of course, several other very good places scattered around the globe, none of them has the combination of depth and breadth that characterizes IQC. I think IQC has created a common culture, in which physicists, chemists, computer scientists and engineers can talk to one another in a common language.”

Leggett was one of three physicists to share the Nobel Prize in physics in 2003, and he was knighted by the British Crown the following year for his important contributions to low-temperature physics and superfluidity.

Leggett says he is impressed with the pace and success of quantum information research at the University of Waterloo. His hope is that researchers will not only continue to make steady progress towards quantum technologies — such as powerful quantum computers, unbreakable quantum cryptography and more — but also discover new ideas and avenues of research that have yet to be conceived.

“I think the most important challenge is to find a genuinely, qualitatively new application for a quantum computer — something so exotic we have not dreamed of it yet,” Leggett says.

“Just don’t ask me what that would be,” he adds.  “If I knew, I’d be doing it!”