thestar.com

These were the surprises and challenges I stumbled upon in my student days and are why I completed my doctorate in quantum computer algorithms. (I developed quantum algorithms, proved the limitations of some algorithmic approaches, and realized the first implementation of a quantum computer algorithm.)

Well, Waterloo had all the raw talent necessary to conduct world- class research in quantum computing. Thanks to federal and provincial grants at the time, I was able to come home in the summer of 1999 and hit the ground running among some of the brightest mathematics and computing students in the world, including a student and postdoctoral researcher I was able to hire before I arrived. But that was just a start.

Concurrent with the rise of the Perimeter Institute was the growth of the quantum computing group at the University of Waterloo, now known as the Institute for Quantum Computing. Another combination of federal and provincial funds, along with generous donations from [Mike Lazaridis], provided the research chairs and campus- wide facilities necessary to attract the best people in the world, including Raymond Laflamme from Los Alamos, now director of the institute.