Jean Christian Boileau, John Brodie Award
2007

Jean-Christian Boileau, a Ph.D student under the supervision of Raymond Laflamme at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute from 2002 to 2007, has been awarded the John Brodie Memorial Award. Jean-Christian now holds the position of CQIQC Fellow at the University of Toronto. His research interests include, quantum computing, liquid-state and solid-state NMR quantum information processing, quantum cryptography and quantum error correction. He devised a new protocol to make quantum cryptography robust against collective noise and show adapted proofs of security to that case.

Alex Buchel, Early Researcher Award
August 2007

Associate member, Alex Buchel, was recognized with this award for his ongoing work in string theory. In particular, Alex has made important contributions in and continues to actively study using AdS/CFT techniques to gain insight into the strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma, recently discovered in experiments at RHIC. The award supports promising, recently appointed Ontario researchers in their research and in building their research teams of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates.

Thomas Thiemann, Basilis Xanthopoulos Prize
July 2007

Associate member Thomas Thiemann was a co-recipient of this international prize awarded by the FORTH Foundation in Greece, given tri-annually to researchers who are below the age of 40 and have made outstanding (preferably theoretical) contributions to gravitational physics. The sixth Basilis Xanthopoulos Prize was awarded jointly to Martin Bojowald and Thomas Thiemann for their seminal and complementary contributions to the development of background-independent quantum gravity.

Freddy Cachazo, Early Researcher Award
November 2006

Faculty member Freddy Cachazo, phD Harvard, received the award to continue work in string theory on perturbative and non-perturbative methods of taming the strong interactions. Much of researchers' current understanding about nature is based on theories in which a particle, like a photon or a gluon, mediates forces among other particles - such as the electromagnetic force between electrons or the strong interaction between quarks. Although physicists find these theories simple to express, it is usually very difficult to extract useful information from them. Freddy Cachazo and a team of PI researchers will be developing new techniques to help fill the gap between the elegant formulation of theories and the wealth of predictions they should provide.

Thomas Thiemann, Early Researcher Award
November 2006

Associate member Thomas Thiemann, PhD Aachen, was recognized with the award to support ongoing research at the interface of cosmology and quantum gravity. It will allow him to recruit Oliver Winkler, a former PI postdoctoral researcher with expertise in quantum gravity. The other members of the collaboration will be Stefan Hofmann, a PI postdoctoral researcher in cosmology, and Kristina Giesel, a graduate student of Thiemann’s at the Albert-Einstein-Institute in Potsdam, Germany. The aim of this timely project is to investigate possible imprints of quantum gravity on cosmology, which might be detectable with planned satellite missions within the next decade.

Mohammad H. Ansari, John Brodie Memorial Award
October 2006

The annual prize was presented in its inaugural year to Mohammad H. Ansari. Mohammad, a PhD student in the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo, has been working under the direction of Fotini Markopoulou and Lee Smolin since 2004. He was selected as the winner for his significant contributions to the field of quantum gravity using tools from statistical mechanics. In particular, he has observed that, despite a complicated emission spectrum, it is possible to derive sharp spectral lines in the Hawking radiation of black holes. Overall, he has authored or co-authored four papers to date and has demonstrated the technical skill, inventiveness, and independence of spirit which provided fitting tribute to the award’s namesake.

The award was established in honour of John Brodie, one of the first postdoctoral researchers at Perimeter institute. John obtained his doctorate in theoretical physics from Princeton University and then, after a position at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, he joined the fledging Perimeter Institute in 2001. During his short career, he published sixteen research papers, many of which have proven to be quite influential. His work was notable for its breadth, ranging from nonperturbative effects in supersymmetric gauge theories to string theoretic descriptions of quantum hall fluids and of inflationary cosmology. He was a sharp intellect, a free spirit and a gentle person. This award recognizes in others the creativity and independence which John showed in his research.

The award was presented to Mohammad in a ceremony during the String Theory and Gauge Theory, Past Present and Future Workshop at PI. Pictured at left presenting the award are John's parents, Angela and Harry Brodie.