Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Perimeter Institute

The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (shortened to Perimeter Institute or simply PI) is an independent, resident-based research institute devoted to foundational issues in theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The Perimeter Institute was founded in 1999 by Mike Lazaridis, co-founder and co-CEO of Research in Motion. His initial donation of $100 million was announced on October 23, 2000. A subsequent personal donation of $50 million was made on June 4, 2008. Research operations began in 2001. Along with its research activities, the 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.

Initially, the Perimeter Institute 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.

The 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.

Public outreach programs

Aside from its research mandate, PI has hosts a number of outreach programs that include physics lectures, dinners and musical performances. Its Black Hole Bistro often hosts reservation dinners featuring jazz, baroque and other ensembles.

The Institute provides a wide array of educational outreach activities for students, teachers and members of the general public in order to share the joy of scientific research, discovery and innovation. These include public lecture playbacks, in-class teaching resources, science camp, on location workshop opportunities.

ISSYP

The International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP) is an outreach program that brings groups of fifty high school students at a time to learn about cutting-edge theoretical physics.

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 the recently concluded 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 included the CN Tower, Niagara Falls and Clifton Hill.

Joint Graduate Studies Program

The Perimeter Institute provides a joint graduate studies program with University of Waterloo. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics invites applications from exceptional students wishing to pursue full-time graduate studies under the supervision of a PI faculty member. Students will be enrolled in a PhD program at University of Waterloo.

Applicants should have interests in one of the research areas at Perimeter Institute - quantum gravity, string theory, quantum information, cosmology, quantum foundations and particle physics.

See also

• Neil Turok Executive Director, Announced May 9, 2008
• Lee Smolin
• Laurent Freidel
• University of Waterloo
• Stephen Hawking Distinguished Research Chair
• Leonard Susskind father of string theory, faculty member

External links

• Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
• Sabine Hossenfelder's (PI) blog