New U-W Research Chairs
Posted May 17, 2010 01:40:51 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The University of Waterloo is two experts bigger and $20 million dollars richer.
Today, MP Peter Braid announced two of the nineteen first-ever Canada Excellence Research Chairs will set up their labs at UW.
David Cory is the new Chair in Quantum Information Processing, while Philippe Van Cappellen is the new Chair in Ecohydrology.
Cory and Cappellen each get $10 million in funding over seven years.
Cory says his work will include developing ways to better get information back from nano sensors; such devices can be used for things like non-invasive technology to measure blood sugar levels.
The former MIT researcher says he would also like to set up a program where students, not experts, come up with the best uses for nano technology.
And Cory says he’ll be setting up a lab for students and the public to see the “parlour tricks” of quantum physics.
He explains, while that won’t be anything so advanced as having a chair in two places simultaneously — which is an aspect of quantum theory — it will involve demonstrations of equipment and experiments, so people can feel the wonder of the science before they get bogged down in the math and physics of it all.
Cappellen was not present at today’s announcement — he is doing research in Saudi Arabia — but his work will examine the relationship between the water use of society and the water needs and capabilities of the environment.
