The Quantum Pontiff

Quantum computing continues to grow in Canada. Congrats to the IQC at the University of Waterloo who now, truly are the center of the quantum computing universe:

With matching funds from the province of Ontario and RIM founder Mike Lazaridis, University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing will receive $150 million to build a research facility and attract talent

Canada will become home to the largest concentration of quantum computing talent in the world, thanks to $150 million in funding from government and the founder of Research In Motion Ltd.

The 2009 federal budget plan released this week reveals a $50 million grant to the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at University of Waterloo in Ontario as an investment in knowledge infrastructure that will help reach the government's science and technology strategy goals.

"What the federal government is proposing is very visionary," said IQC director Raymond Laflamme. "It's really thinking about not only things of today and tomorrow, but the long-term sustainability of the country...I'm very impressed that the Government of Prime Minister Harper has decided to invest in this area."

With another $50-million contribution from the Government of Ontario plus $50 million in private funding from Research in Motion founder Mike Lazaridis, IQC plans to move ahead in becoming the largest quantum computing institute in the world.

Somedays I like to imagine something like this could happen in the United States, but it's at that point that I usually realize I've been using my whiteboard markers too much in an airtight room.

Founded in 2002, IQC began with five researchers from the UW Faculties of Science and Mathematics, two postdoctoral fellows and five graduate students. IQC's numbers have grown to 17 faculty members and roughly 100 researchers, 20 post-docs and 65 students today.

IQC plans to double these numbers, said Laflamme. "If you want to compete with the best in the world, you can't sit still and look at them to pass you. We want to be way ahead so anyone at IQC who's tempted by other places like MIT or Caltech or Cambridge will say, 'No, we want to stay here because this is the Mecca for quantum information in the world,'" he said.