Freddy Cachazo, Perimeter Institute, in recognition of for introducing elegant new mathematical ideas and methods that have led to unexpected insights in the way scattering amplitudes are calculated in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Inspired in part by twistor-string theory, the Cachazo-Svrcek-Witten (CSW) and Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) recursion relations revolutionized the field, making it possible to perform previously impossible calculations analytically in a few lines using explicit integral formulae. These results turned out to be in remarkable correspondence with structures explored concurrently by mathematicians for completely different purposes, establishing a suggestive link with the modern theory of integrable systems.
Richard Boudreault, Chairman Polar Knowledge Canada, in recognition of for his impressive career and intellectual property portfolio, as well as direct contribution to the establishment of several companies based on photonics technologies, namely Orbite Aluminae (production of high-purity Al-oxide and rare-earth with world’s first clean technology) and ART (development of two imaging systems based on the TPSF technology - molecular imaging based on time-resolved fluorescence for small animal imaging, and NIR TPSF spectroscopic system for early breast cancer detection).
Carlos Silva, Université de Montréal, in recognition of for his original developments in transient optical spectroscopies which have brought deep insights into the understanding of electronic excitations in molecular semiconductors.
James Fraser, Queen's University, in recognition of for being a leader in adopting innovative teaching pedagogies, in developing new teaching methods, and in his scholarly approach to researching the effectiveness of his new methods. Recognized as a top, inspirational teacher by students and faculty alike, his contributions to excellence in undergraduate physics teaching span the range from engaging first-year students as apprentice scientists, to guiding upper year students in their transition to independent scientists, to actively facilitating faculty adoption of research-based instructional strategies, and to bridging the gap between practice and Physics Education Research.
Roger Melko, University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute, in recognition of for his contributions to theoretical condensed matter physics, particularly large scale computer simulations which elucidate timely issues in the physics of strongly correlated electronic systems.
Gilles Fontaine, Université de Montréal, in recognition of for his pioneering, world-renowned work in theoretical and observational studies of white dwarf stars and the late stages of stellar evolution, including major contributions to the equation of state for white dwarfs and investigations of pulsating compact stars, as well as the discovery of a new class of subdwarf pulsators. His leadership has built what is arguably the preeminent group in the world in this field.
Akira Konaka, TRIUMF, in recognition of for his outstanding contributions to the T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment, including his leadership in establishing the collaboration. His innovations to the experiment’s design and analysis methods were critical in the discovery of electron neutrino appearance from the muon neutrino beam, a discovery that led to the T2K project being recognized by the 2016 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics. The committee also recognized ongoing innovations with new concepts proposed to improve the precision of the T2K experiment and, potentially, the Hyper-K experiment.
