Foundational physics created the modern world. Ubiquitous technologies like GPS, MRIs, and cell phones all began humbly as formulae on chalkboards, born from the work of scientists and mathematicians trying to define the complex foundational physics that explain our reality. Their breakthroughs changed everything.
Today, we have the potential to do it again. We can create a brighter future for the generations to come. What’s more, it can happen here. Canada is at the forefront of foundational research today.
We have an opportunity
Remarkably, four of the last ten Nobel Prizes in physics have gone to Canadians. This country has laid the foundation, built up over generations, of a research powerhouse. We have an opportunity: The world is looking for leadership in science. Canada can take up that mantle and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is doing our part.
We’re investing in quantum technologies, from computing to sensing and cryptography. We’re experimenting with AI, using it to bolster everything from cosmology to quantum computing. We’re searching for new phases of matter, seeking the materials of the future.
We don’t build hardware: we make it possible.
Perimeter is the first crucial step in a chain. Theory enables experiment, experiment leads to technology, technology builds an economy.
Perimeter’s breakthroughs have been taken up into quantum error correction codes at the most competitive companies across the industry. Our work in quantum key distribution helped lay the groundwork for modern quantum cryptography. The world’s telescopes can see farther than ever before into the deepest reaches of our universe, because of the science done here.
From here, the sky is the limit. In the coming years, with history as our guide, we can anticipate breakthroughs in physics to have a broad impact on everything in our world, from healthcare and medicine to the environment and cleaner energies. And the outcomes will be transformational.
The key to our successes?
We succeed because we can take the risks industry start-ups often can’t. We ask big questions with long horizons. We don’t always know where it will lead, but we know the answers need to be found.
Take black holes, for example. These cosmological giants are the most extreme objects in our universe. Predicted by Albert Einstein but not observed directly until 2019 (with help from Canadian scientists at Perimeter Institute) they’re one of the most fascinating features of our universe, though with seemingly minimal impact on Earthly technology. But when physicists at Perimeter Institute studying black holes learned something new about how these gravitational behemoths scramble information, the discovery made its way into how industry experts write code for quantum computers!
The point: fundamental research pays off, often in ways we didn’t originally expect, and at moments no one could predict. We’ve seen it happen. We’ve made it happen.
Look, this isn’t a boast. It’s a vote of confidence in Canada. If Perimeter Institute can do all that, what can Canada do together? We’re not out here alone. The Canadian science and technology ecosystem across the country employs 1.5 million people, all of whom are among the best in the world. From Vancouver to St. John’s, at world-class universities, and in our storied institutes and organizations, Canadians are doing the work.
The time is right. Invest in fundamental research. Make tomorrow a tomorrow we can all be proud of. We’re ready to explore. Come with us. It will be a trip worth taking.
Learn more about Perimeter, what we’re working on, how you can support us, and how you can get involved.
