The Natural Science and Engineering Research Council’s Discovery Grants and Research Tools and Instruments Grants recipients were announced today, supporting six researchers at the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (Blusson QMI). We congratulate Lukas Chrostowski, Sarah Burke, Andrea Damascelli, Joshua Folk, Joseph Salfi, and Ziliang Ye on their funded projects.
Discovery Grant
The Discovery Grants program supports ongoing programs of research with long-term goals rather than a single short-term project or collection of projects. These grants recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances. Discovery Grants are considered “grants in aid” of research, as they provide long-term operating funds and can facilitate access to funding from other programs but are not meant to support the full costs of a research program.
Lukas Chrostowski, Silicon Photonics for Quantum Computing
$ 380,000 (5 years)
The most ambitious application for silicon photonics, an area in which Chrostowski has demonstrated leadership and expertise, is in quantum computing. Quantum computing is expected to deliver the next leap in information technology, with anticipated impacts as significant as the development of silicon integrated circuits and the Internet. This new projects aims to develop a new architecture that has the potential to solve the challenges faced by current approaches.
Research Tools and Instruments Grants
NSERC Research Tools and Instruments grants foster and enhance the discovery, innovation and training capability of university researchers in the natural sciences and engineering by supporting the purchase of research equipment. Blusson QMI researchers were awarded more than $630,000 to support research infrastructure and equipment.
- Sarah Burke, Low-temperature Scanning Probe Microscope Controller upgrade for multimodal 2D materials investigation
- Andrea Damascelli, Cost-effective continuous operation of the CLS-QMSC Beamline at cryogenic temperatures
- Joshua Folk, Variable temperature measurement system for quantum devices from strongly correlated and topological materials
- Joseph Salfi, Reactive Ion Etcher for Commercially Relevant Quantum Devices
- Ziliang Ye, A Zero-loop Sagnac Interferometer for Probing Spontaneous Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking in Topological Superconductors
