2016 Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics
François Légaré
Institut national de recherches scientifiques (INRS)
François Légaré is internationally recognized for ultrafast molecular imaging, for the development of high-power lasers and their applications, and for tissue imaging with nonlinear optical microscopy. Among his major scientific contributions, he has developed a new laser amplification scheme called Frequency domain Optical Parametric Amplification, which is now commercialized by a Canadian spin-off company. He is the recipient of the Herzberg medal from the Canadian Association of Physicists (2015).
Class of 2016 New Fellows of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division
Charlotte Froese Fischer
Computer Science, The University of British Columbia
For more than 50 years, Charlotte Fischer has made profound and lasting contributions to theoretical techniques for the calculation of atomic transition frequencies, decay rates, and other atomic processes through the development of computer software that has become a standard for the field. The results have found wide application in astrophysics, plasma diagnostics, and the development of controlled fusion devices.
Jean Claude Kieffer
Institut national de recherches scientifiques, Université du Québec
Jean Claude Kieffer is a Canada Research Chair in Ultrafast Photonics. He founded Canada’s national laser facility, ALLS (Advanced Laser Light Source), an ultrafast intense laser center for imaging applications in material and health sciences. His own research in laser-matter interaction has contributed to major advances in plasma physics, new ultrafast X-Ray sources for novel applications in health sciences, in dynamic imaging of complex systems, and in particle acceleration for cancer research.
Aephraim Steinberg
epartment of Physics, University of Toronto
Aephraim Steinberg is a professor of Physics at the University of Toronto. Using ultracold atoms and entangled photons, he studies the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum measurement, as well as applications to quantum information. He is known for his theoretical and experimental work on “weak measurement,” which he has used for instance to track photon “trajectories” and to demonstrate a violation of the common interpretation of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. He is the recipient of the Herzberg medal from the Canadian Association of Physicists (2006).
Source: The Royal Society of Canada https://rsc-src.ca