The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and its medal partners are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 CAP medals.
Mark Your Calendars — A series of virtual plenary medal talks to honour the 2021 medal recipients will be organized on Dec. 17 and 20. Once finalized, the detailed talk schedule will be posted on the CAP’s website and a NewsFlash will be released. The medals will be forwarded to all recipients with the congratulations of the community.
The 2021 CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics is awarded to
Prof. Robert Raussendorf, University of British Columbia
to recognize his eminent contributions to the theory of quantum computing, including groundbreaking work on measurement-based or “one way” quantum computing, fault-tolerant quantum computing, and computationally universal quantum phases of matter.
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The 2021 CAP-COMP Peter Kirkby Memorial Medal for Outstanding Service to Canadian Physics is awarded to
Prof. Henry M. Van Driel, University of Toronto
to recognize his outstanding service to the Canadian physics community over a period of more than forty-five years, which has included international efforts, great service to the CAP, work with NSERC on behalf of Canadian physics, and editorial service to distinguished journals in North America.
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The 2021 CAP Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Industrial and Applied Physics is awarded to
Dr. Vincent Tabard-Cossa, University of Ottawa
to recognize his innovative contribution to Physics by developing a new nanopore fabrication technique. Nanopores can electrically detect individual molecules like DNA and proteins and are finding applications in next generation diagnostics, sequencing, and data storage devices. Dr. Tabard-Cossa’s ground-breaking controlled breakdown method of nanopore fabrication simplifies and replaces a previously cumbersome and expensive process, enabling scalable, low-cost fabrication of solid-state nanopores at sub-nanometer scale.
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The 2021 CAP/DCMMP Brockhouse Medal is awarded to
Prof. Roger Melko, University of Waterloo / Perimeter Institute
to recognize his work on the theoretical understanding of many-body quantum systems through large-scale computer simulations. The theoretical tools developed by Dr. Melko’s group provide a new perspective on understanding of quantum condensed matter and have proven highly influential in areas such as quantum information, field theory, cold atomic matter, and artificial intelligence.
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The 2021 CAP Medal for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduate Physics is awarded to
Dr. Richard James Epp, University of Waterloo
to recognize his accomplishments in teaching and commitment to physics outreach. He consistently receives high teaching evaluations from majors and non-majors alike, and students commended his “Thinking Like a Physicist” series that replaced informal interactions during the pandemic lockdown.
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The 2021 CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal for Contributions to Subatomic Physics is awarded to
Prof. Sangyong Jeon, McGill University
to recognize his contributions to the theory of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and of the resulting quark-gluon plasma.
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The 2021 CAP Herzberg Medal is awarded to
Prof. Simon Caron-Huot, McGill University
to recognize his creation and development of nonperturbative techniques in conformal field theory, thereby opening the way to broad-ranging applications from particle physics to condensed matter physics.
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The 2021 CAP Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Physics is awarded to
Robert Brandenberger, McGill University
to recognize his coupling of ground-breaking developments in theoretical cosmology with recent dramatic advances in observational astronomy of the early universe.
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