2017 Medal Winners | francais

The 2017 CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics

is awarded to

Raymond Laflamme

"As a student in Cambridge, Professor Werner Israel regularly visited Professor Stephen Hawking. I remember looking up to him as an eminent scientist and someone to emulate. Being considered alongside Werner and the impressive group of researchers awarded the CAP-CRM prize in the past, is truly an honour." winner citation

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM) are pleased to announce that the 2017 CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics is awarded to Raymond Laflamme, Institute for Quantum Computing/University of Waterloo, in recognition of for his ground-breaking contributions on quantum information. announcement

Raymond Laflamme completed his PhD on aspects of general relativity and quantum cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) under the direction of Professor Stephen Hawking at the University of Cambridge. From 1992-2001, Dr. Laflamme worked as a research scientist at Los Alamos Research Laboratory, where his interests shifted from cosmology to quantum computing. His work in this new area has focused on how to make quantum information processors more feasible.

Since the mid-1990�s, he has developed theoretical approaches to quantum error correction, and has given experimental demonstrations of these techniques. In collaboration with Emmanuel Knill, Dr. Laflamme gave conditions for quantum error correcting codes, and established the fault-tolerance threshold, thereby showing that quantum computing systems could be practically useful. He went on to perform the first experimental demonstration of quantum error correction. Dr. Laflamme has also devised and implemented new methods to make quantum information robust against corruption in both cryptographic and computational settings. With colleagues, he has developed a blueprint for a quantum information processor using readily available linear optic components rather than exotic non-linear devices. This work was recognized as one of the most influential achievements in quantum information in the period 2001-2009.

Dr. Laflamme holds the Canada Research Chair in Quantum Information and has authored or co-authored over 170 academic papers. He also co-authored a book, Introduction to Quantum Computing, with Michele Mosca and Philip Kaye in 2006. Dr. Laflamme founded the Institute for Quantum Computing in 2002 and has been its Executive Director since its inception. nominator citation

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