The NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering is awarded annually for both the sustained excellence and overall influence of research work conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering.
On 2021 November 17, the NSERC Herzberg Medal was awarded to Prof. Sajeev John from the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto.
Prof. Sajeev John is a world-renowned theoretical physicist whose pioneering research enables photons to be trapped and controlled in an optical microchip, analogous to how electrons are controlled in a semiconductor. John’s invention of Photonic Band Gap (PBG) materials, which allow confinement of photons to a microscopic region with the size of the wavelength of light, is a highly consequential breakthrough in the fundamental science of light-matter interactions. As a result, it may be possible to process information optically rather than electronically, enabling a supercomputing technology more stable and scalable than quantum computers. Hollow-core optical fibres, based on the PBG concept, are now used by medical doctors in life-saving laser surgeries. The ability to “localize light” on the microscopic scale also provides a route to a new generation of “lab-on-chip” optical sensors that can detect multiple, disease-identifying, biomolecules for instantaneous medical diagnostics using minimal fluid sample. John and his team at the University of Toronto have recently applied their light-trapping ideas into the design of flexible, lightweight, thin-film silicon solar cells that can be coated on a variety of surfaces, with unprecedented sunlight capture capabilities and power-conversion efficiencies well beyond that of standard solar panels.
Sajeev John is one of Canada’s most influential and respected scientists. His discoveries are the driving force behind major technological advancements, and his revelations have impacted the fields of physics, chemistry, engineering and medicine.
For more information, please see NSERC’s Media Release.