Page 65 - 2013 Annual Report

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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 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. Before joining Perimeter’s faculty
in 2003, 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). 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.
Pedro Vieira
(PhD École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and the Theoretical Physics Center at University of Porto, 2008) joined
Perimeter in 2009 from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), where he was a Junior
Scientist from 2008 to 2009. Vieira’s research concerns the development of new mathematical techniques for gauge and
string theories, ultimately aiming at the solution of a realistic four-dimensional gauge theory. His research interests also
include the related areas of the AdS/CFT correspondence and theoretical calculations of scattering amplitudes. “Y-system
for scattering amplitudes,” a paper by Vieira and his collaborators, won the 2012 Best Paper Prize from the Institute of
Physics (IOP) and the Editorial Board of
Journal of Physics A
. He also won an Early Researcher Award in 2012.
Xiao-Gang Wen
(PhD Princeton University, 1987) joined Perimeter’s faculty in May 2012 as the BMO Financial Group
Isaac Newton Chair in Theoretical Physics at Perimeter Institute. Widely recognized as one of the world’s leaders in
condensed matter theory, he pioneered the new paradigm of quantum topological order, used to describe phenomena
from superconductivity to fractionally charged particles, and he has invented many new mathematical formalisms. Wen
authored the textbook
Quantum Field Theory of Many-body Systems: From the Origin of Sound to an Origin of Light
and Electrons
. He was previously a Distinguished Moore Scholar at the California Institute of Technology and the Cecil
and Ida Green Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as one of Perimeter’s own
Distinguished Visiting Research Chairs. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society.