Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
located in
Waterloo,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor is Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist
Mike Lazaridis
Mihal "Mike" Lazaridis (born March 14, 1961) is a Canadian businessman, investor in quantum computing technologies, and founder of BlackBerry, which created and manufactured the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. With an estimated net worth of ...
.
The original building, designed by Saucier + Perrotte, opened in 2004 and was awarded a
Governor General's Medal for Architecture
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...
in 2006. The Stephen Hawking Centre, designed by
Teeple Architects
Teeple Architects is an architecture firm based in Toronto, Ontario founded by Stephen Teeple, in the year 1989. The firm is known to design several buildings in Canada.
Selected projects
Teeple’s works include 60 Richmond Street East Housing ...
, was opened in 2011 and was LEED Silver certified in 2015.
In addition to research, Perimeter also provides scientific training and educational outreach activities to the general public. This is done in part through Perimeter's Educational Outreach team.
History
![The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (7481548126)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/The_Perimeter_Institute_for_Theoretical_Physics_%287481548126%29.jpg)
Lazaridis' initial donation of $100 million was announced on October 23, 2000, believed to be the biggest private donation in Canadian history to that point. A subsequent personal donation of $50 million was made on June 4, 2008.
Research operations began in 2001. Along with its research activities, 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.
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 May 2008, Dr.
Neil Turok
Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African physicist. He holds the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physi ...
, a cosmologist, was appointed as Perimeter Institute's director replacing
Howard Burton Howard Burton is a physicist who is the creator of Ideas Roadshow, a multimedia initiative dedicated to harnessing the benefits of modern technology to explore ideas across the arts and sciences through thoughtful and seriously-entertaining document ...
.
In November 2008, it was announced that physicist
Stephen Hawking would take the position of Distinguished Visiting Research Chair, a visiting position, at the institute.
On February 28, 2019, Dr.
Robert Myers was appointed as the director of the Perimeter Institute, replacing Dr.
Neil Turok
Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African physicist. He holds the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physi ...
.
Research
Perimeter's research encompasses nine fields:
*
Cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
*
Mathematical physics
Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...
*
Particle Physics
Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
*
Quantum fields
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles ...
and
strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
*
Quantum foundations
Quantum foundations is a discipline of science that seeks to understand the most counter-intuitive aspects of quantum theory, reformulate it and even propose new generalizations thereof. Contrary to other physical theories, such as general relati ...
*
Quantum gravity
Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...
*
Quantum information
Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both th ...
*
Quantum matter
*
Strong gravity
Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive (PIRSA)
An extensive, up-to-date archive of the institute's varied research activities is readily available to the public via the internet. The Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive (PIRSA), is a permanent, free, searchable, and citable archive of recorded seminars, conferences, workshops and outreach events. Seminars with video and timed presentation materials can be accessed on-demand in Windows and Flash formats together with MP3 audio files and PDFs of the supporting materials. The PIRSA project is enlarged by the creation of SciTalks (See below).
SciTalks
After more than 13,000 talks uploaded to PIRSA, Perimeter Institute created in 2020 a new public video archive called SciTalks with the support of the
Simons Foundations. It is a
meta-repository search tool of scientific talks beyond what is produced at PI and aims to "revolutionize the world of scholarly communication in the way that the
arXiv
arXiv (pronounced "archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review. It consists of ...
has done for print scientific papers". Apart from PIRSA's existing content, SciTalks indexes videos from other institutions, such as
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
,
Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing
The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley is an institute for collaborative research in theoretical computer science.
History
Established on July 1, 2012 with a grant of $60 million from the Simons ...
,
ICTP
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is an international research institute for physical and mathematical sciences that operates under a tripartite agreement between the Italian Government, United Nations Education ...
and
ICTP-SAIFR. As a
meta-repository, SciTalks only stores metadata and links related to the videos, which are stored in other databases.
Educational outreach
Perimeter's educational outreach team's activities include a monthly public lecture series, a two-week summer camp for the world's top science students, a series of in-class resources, week-long professional development workshops for science teachers, cultural activities with local and international artists, an online archive of educational resources, an extensive network of science teachers to share content across Canada, and many other special events and science festivals contributing to
physics outreach.
Public lectures series
Perimeter Institute has welcomed a number of very prominent scientists to deliver lectures on a wide variety of subjects. Lecturers have included:
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum m ...
,
Gerard ‘t Hooft,
Jay Ingram
Jay Ingram CM (born March 20, 1945) is a Canadian author, broadcaster and science communicator. He was host of the television show ''Daily Planet'' (originally titled ''@discovery.ca''), which aired on Discovery Channel Canada, since the channe ...
,
Seth Lloyd
Seth Lloyd (born August 2, 1960) is a professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. He has perform ...
,
Jay Melosh,
Sir Roger Penrose
Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fel ...
,
Michael Peskin Michael Edward Peskin (born October 27, 1951, Philadelphia) is an American theoretical physicist. He was an undergraduate at Harvard University and obtained his Ph.D. in 1978 at Cornell University studying under Kenneth Wilson. He was a Junior Fell ...
,
Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an American physicis ...
,
Frank Wilczek
Frank Anthony Wilczek (; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Direct ...
and
Anton Zeilinger
Anton Zeilinger (; born 20 May 1945) is an Austrian quantum physicist and Nobel laureate in physics of 2022. Zeilinger is professor of physics emeritus at the University of Vienna and senior scientist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Qua ...
.
ISSYP
The International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP)
brings approximately 20 Canadian students and 20 International students aged 16 – 18 to Perimeter for two weeks each year.
EinsteinPlus
The annual EinsteinPlus summer school for high school physics teachers is held for one week each summer.
BrainSTEM: Your Future is Now
This festival connected technological innovations to the scientific breakthroughs that make them possible. The festival, held September 30 to October 6, 2013, featured science-centre styled exhibits, special presentations, public lectures, Science in the Club events and insider-tours of the Perimeter Institute. Webcast Public Lectures featured James Grime,
Ray Laflamme and
Lucy Hawking
Catherine Lucy Hawking (born 2 November 1970) is an English journalist, novelist, educator, and philanthropist. She is the daughter of the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and writer Jane Wilde Hawking. She lives in London, and is a chil ...
.
Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future festival
Held in October, 2009, the Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future festival (Q2C Festival) was a
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
outreach event held in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. The festival included events and activities spanning: lectures, panel discussions, pub talks, cultural activities, a PI documentary premiere (The Quantum Tamers: Revealing Our Weird and Wired Future),
sci-fi
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...
film festival, an art exhibit and the hugely popular Physica Phantastica exhibit centre, a space filled with demonstrations, hands-on activities, experiments and an immersive 3D tour of the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
narrated by
Stephen Hawking.
The Q2C Festival attracted some 40,000 attendees (including over 6,000 in the secondary school program that brought students from
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
and
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
and nearly one million viewers – and counting – through online streaming, video-on-demand services and special television broadcasts. Special editions of
TVO
TVO (stylized as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station CICA-DT (channel 19) in To ...
’s “
The Agenda with Steve Paikin", filmed live in PI's Atrium in
Waterloo attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers from across Canada with just five broadcasts.
Training
Joint masters-level program
In partnership with the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
, PI conducts Perimeter Scholars International (PSI), a master's level course in theoretical physics. The 10-month course was inaugurated in August 2009, and admits around 30 scholars per year. Students admitted (on average 3% of all applicants) receive full scholarships and living expenses. The master's degree itself is issued by the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
.
Doctoral studies
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics also hosts PhD students wishing to pursue full-time graduate studies under the supervision of a PI faculty member. PhD students receive their doctoral degrees from a university partner, such as the University of Waterloo.
Courses
Perimeter Institute offers a number of planned courses each year, including cross-listed programs with universities and mini-courses given by PI faculty, associate faculty and visiting researchers. The courses are made available to all students enrolled in surrounding universities. The popular courses are attended by students from
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
,
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...
,
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...
,
University of Guelph
, mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities"
, established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922)
, type = Public university
, chancellor ...
,
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
,
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
, and other centres.
Expansion
Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute
Designed by
Teeple Architects
Teeple Architects is an architecture firm based in Toronto, Ontario founded by Stephen Teeple, in the year 1989. The firm is known to design several buildings in Canada.
Selected projects
Teeple’s works include 60 Richmond Street East Housing ...
, a new expansion, the
Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute, was completed in September 2011. The centre's grand opening was in September 2011 and included a video greeting from Hawking, who rarely traveled due to disability.
This was the first-ever Gold Seal-managed project in Ontario, it attained
LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
Silver certification in 2015.
References
External links
PIRSA– Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive
Perimeter Scholars International (PSI)Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perimeter Institute For Theoretical Physics
Research institutes in Canada
Higher education in Ontario
Physics institutes
Buildings and structures in Waterloo, Ontario
Organizations established in 1999
Theoretical physics institutes
1999 establishments in Ontario