| Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics | |
|---|---|
| Type | Research institute |
| Location | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada |
| Website | www.perimeterinstitute.ca |
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent research centre in foundational, theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1999, Perimeter Institute works to advance our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter, and information.
In addition to research, Perimeter also provides a wide array of scientific training and educational outreach activities to nurture scientific talent and share the importance of discovery with students, teachers and the general public. This is done in part through Perimeter’s Educational Outreach team.[1]
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Lazaridis' initial donation of $100 million was announced on October 23, 2000. A subsequent personal donation of $50 million was made on June 4, 2008.[2] Research operations began in 2001. Along with its research activities, Perimeter Institute operates an international outreach program. It hosts the International Summer School for Young Physicists every summer, which is a physics camp for high school students.
Under the stewardship of Howard Burton, the Institute's first Executive Director, PI initially operated out of Waterloo's historic post office on King Street. In October 2004, it moved into its custom-built facility on Caroline Street, across Silver Lake from Waterloo Park. The building was designed by Montreal architect firm Saucier + Perrotte, which received a Governor General's Medal for Architecture for the design in May 2006. The building next to PI, housing the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, won the same award for its architects in 1997. Perimeter Institute's building features an open glass facade along the north and west sides, contrasting with the slate-black metal walls of much of the rest of the building. Each researcher's office, as well as various lounge areas, features a full-wall blackboard for working out and theorizing in solo or group efforts. The Ontario budget, announced in March 2006, included a commitment to provide $50 million in funding to PI from the Ministry of Research and Innovation.
In November 2008, it was announced that prominent physicist Stephen Hawking would take the position of Distinguished Research Chair, a visiting position, at the Institute.[3][4]
PI is building on its promising start with the goal of becoming one of the world’s leading centres for foundational theoretical physics. It seeks to act as a global resource for the field, promoting research excellence and stimulating major scientific breakthroughs.[5]
Theoretical physics seeks to understand what the universe is made of, and the forces that govern it, at the most fundamental level. It is one of the highest impact, yet lowest costs fields in all of science. Its powerful ideas have seeded innovations across all of science and technology, from mechanical engineering to wireless communication, from electronics to power generation.[6]
As an independent research centre, Perimeter Institute actively promotes interactions and new connections among different disciplines. Discoveries often result from collisions between different approaches, when ideas combine to yield entirely new insights. Perimeter has strategically expanded its research to encompass eight fields, each offering complementary views of the basic laws governing the universe[7]. The chosen set of research areas is unique worldwide, forming a whole far greater than the sum of its parts and enabling advances in one area to promote progress in others.
Research activities at PI are accessible to the global scientific community via the internet through the Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive (PIRSA). PIRSA is a permanent, free, searchable, and citable archive of recorded seminars, conferences, workshops, and outreach events.
On-demand seminars with video and timed presentation materials can be accessed in Windows and Flash formats and offer MP3 audio files and PDFs of the supporting materials. A split-sceen format allows viewers to watch seminars from the perspective of an audience member, as well as being able zoom-in, pause, and examine specific slides, equations, or figures more closely.
Perimeter Institute has an active Educational Outreach team that aims to engage, educate and inspire students, teachers and the public. Perimeter focuses on sharing the importance of science with audiences around the world, while supporting a network of educators and providing in-class resources to develop brilliant young minds. The centre also serves as a global resource by posting educational content online and participating in international gatherings.[9]
Perimeter Institute's educational outreach activities include a monthly public lecture series, a two-week summer camp for the world’s top science students, a series of in-class resources, week-long professional development workshops for science teachers, cultural activities with local and international artists, an online archive of educational resources, an extensive network of science teachers to share content across Canada, and many other special events and science festivals.[10][11]
Held in October, 2009, the Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future festival (Q2C Festival) took a global audience from the strange subatomic world to the outer frontiers of the universe.
The events commemorated the 10th anniversary of Perimeter Institute’s creation, contributed to Canada’s National Science and Technology week activities, and provided one of the world’s most interesting destinations during 2009’s International Year of Astronomy. The festival content was on-site, online and on TV, the latter courtesy of TVO, Ontario’s public educational media organization and the official Presenting Media Partner for the Q2C Festival.
The event was the largest and most comprehensive science outreach event ever held in Canada. The scope and scale included events and activities spanning: lectures, panel discussions, pub talks, cultural activities, a PI documentary premiere (The Quantum Tamers: Revealing Our Weird and Wired Future), sci-fi film festival, an art exhibit and the hugely popular Physica Phantastica exhibit centre, a 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) space filled with demonstrations, hands-on activities, experiments and an immersive 3D tour of the universe narrated by Stephen Hawking.
The Q2C Festival attracted some 40,000 attendees (including over 6,000 in the secondary school program that brought students from Ontario and New York State and nearly one million viewers – and counting – through online streaming, video-on-demand services and special television broadcasts. Special additions of TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”, filmed live in PI’s Atrium in Waterloo attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers from across Canada with just five broadcasts.
While the festival lasted 10 days, the impact continues – individuals can still view archived Q2C Festival lectures online, download podcasts and animations, and order educational presentations.
The International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP) is an outreach program that brings a group of forty high school students each year to learn about cutting-edge theoretical physics. With lectures on Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity, and General Relativity given by physicist Richard Epp and high school teacher Dave Fish, the program is able to introduce some deep math with more emphasis on the conceptual side of these fields.
Students are housed at the University of Waterloo, and spend hours each day with Perimeter's researchers, learning through interaction with their peers as well as from keynote speeches by prominent physicists.
The program teaches both mathematics and physics in core sessions, and offers an introduction to the research experience through mentoring sessions with researchers at the institute. Keynote talks have come from both post-doctoral researchers and long-term researchers at the institute, including Lee Smolin and Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara. Students have been introduced to topics such as: black holes, quantum space-time, string theory, spin networks, quantum computing, and quantum mechanics interpretations.
Since its creation in 2003, the program has expanded from a group of twenty students from across Canada to two separate groups of fifty students each, from six continents around the world, in 2006.
82 students from 6 continents participated in ISSYP 2008. Besides studying the concepts involved in quantum physics, special relativity, general relativity and black holes, participants also visited various tourist attractions within Toronto and Ontario. Such attractions have included the CN Tower, and Niagara Falls.
In partnership with the University of Waterloo, PI launched Perimeter Scholars International (PSI), a concentrated Masters level course for exceptional students who wish to become researchers in theoretical physics. The 10-month course, taught at PI by outstanding international lecturers, started in August 2009, and is expected to eventually draw 50 scholars per year. Participants are brought to the cutting edge of fundamental physics across a wide range of research disciplines, and conduct a specialized research project under the supervision of a faculty member at PI or one of the local universities. The Masters degree is issued by the nearby University of Waterloo.
The convocation of the inaugural pilot class of 28 outstanding research trainees from 17 countries, including 6 women, was held at Perimeter Institute on June 20, 2010.[12]
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics also hosts exceptional PhD students wishing to pursue full-time graduate studies under the supervision of a PI faculty member. PhD students receive their doctoral degrees from a university partner, such as the University of Waterloo.
Perimeter Institute offers a number of planned courses each year, including cross-listed programs with universities and mini-courses given by PI Faculty, Associate Faculty, and Visiting Researchers. In addition to providing excellent learning opportunities for young researchers at PI, the courses are made available to all students enrolled in surrounding universities. The popular courses are attended by students from University of Waterloo, University of Western Ontario, McMaster University, University of Guelph, University of Toronto, York University, and other centres.
Designed by Teeple Architects, a new 55,000 square feet (5,000 m2) expansion, the Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute, is presently under construction and is the first building to which Stephen Hawking, a Perimeter Institute Distinguished Research Chair[13]has ever lent his name.[14] Though still under construction, The Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute was honoured by leaders in the building industry as the first-ever Gold Seal-managed project in Ontario. The expansion is expected to be completed in Summer 2011. It is planned to attain LEED Silver certification.[15] The Centre's grand opening will be in September 2011 and will be attended by Stephen Hawking.[16]
The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) is an integral oversight body, deliberately created to assist the Board of Directors in ensuring objectivity and a high standard of scientific excellence. The SAC advises on matters of scientific policy, appointments and renewal of scientific staff, performance reviews of the scientific staff, outreach initiatives and general structural concerns. The SAC meets on an annual basis. It is composed of eminent scientists drawn from the international community.
SAC Members
Past SAC Members
Perimeter Institute is an independent not-for-profit corporation governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Board approves and monitors strategic plans and is the final authority on all matters of substance related to the general structure and development of the Institute
Directors
Founding Directors Emeriti
Past Director Emiritus