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ASSOCIATE FACULTY
Niayesh Afshordi
(PhD Princeton University, 2004) is jointly appointed with the University of Waterloo. He was the
Institute for Theory and Computation Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from 2004 to 2007
and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Perimeter Institute from 2008 to 2009. Afshordi began his appointment as an
Associate Faculty member in 2010. He specializes in interdisciplinary problems in fundamental physics, astrophysics, and
cosmology. In 2010, he was awarded a Discovery Accelerator Supplement from the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Avery Broderick
(PhD California Institute of Technology, 2004) began a joint appointment with Perimeter and the University
of Waterloo in September 2011. He previously held postdoctoral positions at the Institute for Theory and Computation
at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2004-07) and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
(2007-11). Broderick is an astrophysicist with broad research interests, ranging from how stars form to the extreme
physics in the vicinity of white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. He has recently been part of an international effort
to produce and interpret horizon-resolving images of supermassive black holes, studying how black holes accrete matter,
launch the ultra-relativistic outflows observed, and probe the nature of gravity in their vicinity.
Alex Buchel
(PhD Cornell University, 1999) is jointly appointed with Western University. He held research positions at the
Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1999-2002), and the Michigan Center for
Theoretical Physics at the University of Michigan (2002-03), before joining Perimeter’s faculty in 2003. Buchel’s research
efforts focus on understanding the quantum properties of black holes and the origin of our universe, as described by
string theory, as well as developing analytical tools that could shed new light on strong interactions of subatomic particles.
In 2007, he was awarded an Early Researcher Award from Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation.
Cliff Burgess
(PhD University of Texas at Austin, 1985) joined Perimeter’s faculty as an Associate member in 2004 and
was jointly appointed to McMaster University’s faculty in 2005. Prior to that, he was a Member in the School of Natural
Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a Faculty member at McGill University. Over two decades,
Burgess has applied the techniques of effective field theory to high energy physics, nuclear physics, string theory, early
universe cosmology, and condensed matter physics. With collaborators, he developed leading string theoretic models of
inflation that provide its most promising framework for experimental verification. Burgess’ recent honours include a Killam
Fellowship, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada, and the CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.
David Cory
(PhD Case Western Reserve University, 1987) is jointly appointed with the Institute for Quantum Computing
and the University of Waterloo. He held research positions at the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands, the National
Research Council at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He also led research and development activities in nuclear magnetic resonance at Bruker Instruments. Since 1996, Cory
has been exploring the experimental challenges of building small quantum processors based on nuclear spins, electron
spins, neutrons, persistent current superconducting devices, and optics. In 2010, he was named the Canada Excellence
Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing. Cory chairs the advisory committee for the Quantum Information
Processing program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).
Adrian Kent
(PhD University of Cambridge, 1986) is jointly appointed with the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining
Perimeter’s faculty, he was an Enrico Fermi postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, a member of the Institute
for Advanced Study, and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Kent’s research
focuses on the foundations of physics, quantum cryptography, and quantum information theory, including the physics
of decoherence, novel tests of quantum theory and alternative theories, and new applications of quantum information.