Waterloo lures Nobel laureate to faculty post

Canada, January 9, 2007 :The University of Waterloo has lured a Nobel laureate as it attempts to bolster its international presence in the arena of quantum computing.

Sir Anthony Leggett will divide his time between Waterloo and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is a physics professor. Sir Anthony comes to Waterloo as a research professor with the Institute for Quantum Computing. He, along with two colleagues, were awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 2003.

"By virtue of having assembled an outstanding cluster of computer scientists, mathematicians and theoretical and experimental physicists . . . the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo has already become an international leader in the exploding field of quantum information," he said in a university press release announcing his appointment.

Sir Anthony visited the university last year, delivering lectures on campus. Amit Chakma, Waterloo's vice-president academic and provost, said the university wanted to formalize the relationship.

"Ideally, we would like 100 per cent of his time, but would settle for anything as long as it's not zero," Dr. Chakma said in an interview yesterday.

Sir Anthony, who is giving a series of lectures in India, could not be reached for an interview yesterday.

The research facility at Waterloo, which is expected to be built by 2010, will house as many as 30 physicists, engineers, chemists and applied mathematicians, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral students. The Institute for Quantum Computing will compete with the California Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford.

To have such an eminent researcher join the university signals a vote of confidence, Dr. Chakma said.

"He puts a rubber stamp of approval for our desire to be a world leader in quantum computing," he said. "To have a senior scholar see the possibilities the way we see it is a reassuring thing for us."

Dr. Chakma declined to divulge how much Sir Anthony would earn, saying: "Considering what we're getting, it is a very modest amount."

As well as conducting his research, Sir Anthony will offer seminars to undergraduate and graduate students, mentor new professors and guide researchers.

Waterloo can now promote itself as one of a handful of schools in Canada with a Nobel laureate on its faculty. John Polanyi, who won for his work in chemistry, is at the University of Toronto, and Carl Wieman left the University of Colorado at Boulder to join the University of British Columbia.

"Having somebody of Tony's stature clearly means that we are going to be more appealing to others who want to come and do their research here. It's a sign of confidence in the quality of the people here. It will greatly aid our recruitment efforts," said David Fransen, executive director of the Institute for Quantum Computing and an associate vice-president at the university.

“What Tony Leggett brings is an area of expertise that complements what we have here. He brings breadth, he brings depth and he brings imagination and inspiration.”