Natacha Altamirano, Birch Hill Equity Partners
Data Scientist
Natacha is a data scientist at Birch Hill Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm which buys and manages Canadian mid-market companies. In her role, she helps these portfolio companies achieve their goals through predictive models and performs due diligence for sale opportunities and new acquisitions. Prior to Birch Hill, Natacha was part of Insight Data Science, a program that helps PhDs transition from academia to roles as data scientists. While there, she built an end-to-end machine learning app to predict the probability of success of Kickstarter campaigns.
Natacha completed the PSI program at Perimeter Institute during 2012-2013 and she obtained her PhD at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute under the supervision of Niayesh Afshordi and Robert Mann. Her research focused on theoretical and observational cosmology.
Crystal Bailey, American Physical Society
Head, Careers Program
Dr. Crystal Bailey is the Head of Career Programs at the American Physical Society (APS) in College Park, MD. Crystal works on several projects which are geared towards marketing physics and physics career information to high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and physics professionals. Some of her principle projects include the Physics InSight slideshow, career events and workshops at APS annual and division meetings, the APS Job Board and Job Fairs, APS Webinars, and maintaining resources on the APS Careers Website. As the principle investigator for the APS PIPELINE project, she also devotes significant amounts of time to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship education in physics.
Before coming to the APS, Dr. Bailey did research in nuclear physics at Indiana University, Bloomington in the area of few-body systems. In 2008 she received the Konopinski Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching from the IU Physics Department. She graduated with her PhD from IU in 2009.
Kelly Foyle, Perimeter Institute
Outreach Scientist
Kelly is an outreach scientist at Perimeter Institute. She is dedicated to developing and delivering educational material on modern physics to the public, teachers and students. She completed her doctorate degree in astrophysics at Heidelberg University in Germany and a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University researching galaxies and star formation. She loves learning and sharing her passion for science.
Margaret Fraser, OpenText
Technical Marketing Specialist
My career is in software, which is an extremely vague label that covers a lot of interesting things I’ve done while working at companies ranging size from 20 to 20,000+ people. I've done coding on systems with uses from rocket science to brain surgery, Hollywood animation to speed skate development. And I also like the non-coding aspects of the field: project management, hardware, technical writing, training, videos, etc. (sometimes etc. is the most fun part). Over the last few decades I’ve delivered projects from tiny websites to a complete production floor control system. And I love being mom to our three boys. I have an MSc in physics from the University of Toronto and an Honours BSc in physics from the University of British Columbia.
Alioscia Hamma, University of Massachusetts Boston
Associate Professor
Alioscia is an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was formerly an Associate Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China after being a distinguished research fellow at the Perimeter Institute and having been a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and Universisty of Southern California. Alioscia's research interests lie in the intersection between quantum information, condensed matter theory and statistical physics a discipline that can be dubbed as quantum matter.
Chris Herdman, Middlebury College
Assistant Professor
Chris is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Middlebury College, in Middlebury, Vermont. Chris completed his undergraduate studies in Engineering Physics at Cornell University and received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to his current position, Chris had postdoctoral research positions at the University of Vermont and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. Chris’s research interests are at the intersection of condensed matter physics and quantum information; he primarily uses computational methods to study the quantum mechanical nature of matter and information.
Ted Hsu
Ted Hsu obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989 and his research publications are mostly in the area of quantum many-body physics. His post-doctoral research took him to U.B.C. in Vancouver, the CNRS-CRTBT in Grenoble, France, and Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) in Chalk River, Ontario.
His quantitative background led Ted to a nine-year career in finance that took him to the United States, Europe, and Japan. As a researcher and a trader, he wrote and used computer programs and mathematical models for risk management and business automation. During those years, Ted worked for Banque Nationale de Paris in France and for Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, where he learned about the global capital markets and gained experience as a business line manager.
Beginning in 2007, Ted served a three-year term as executive director of SWITCH, a South-Eastern Ontario not-for-profit association that promotes local job creation, investment in sustainable energy and aims to position the region at the forefront of the transition away from a fossil fuel based economy.
Ted was elected Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands in May 2011. He served variously as the Liberal Party’s spokesperson for Science and Technology, Post-Secondary Education, Federal Economic Development in Ontario, and Natural Resources. He has been an advocate for evidence-based policy, government support for science, the commercialization of discovery research, STEM education, climate change mitigation, and parliamentary and electoral reform.
After working in Canada, the United States, France, and Japan, including a three-year stint as a stay-at-home father, Ted chose to return to his hometown of Kingston. He continues to reside in Kingston with his wife and two daughters where he pursues interests in science, public policy, democratic reform, student robotics competitions and the commercialization of technology.
Stephanie Keating, Perimeter Institute
Science Writer/Editor
Stephanie has been a science writer and editor at Perimeter Institute since 2016. Stephanie is trained as a scientist: she received her BSc and MSc in Astrophysics from Western University in London, Ontario, and her PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Toronto. Her studies focused primarily on extragalactic astronomy, including active galactic nuclei and compact galaxies. After finishing her PhD in 2015, Stephanie came to Perimeter as an Outreach Scientist with the Educational Outreach department. As a science writer, Stephanie is thrilled to communicate the fascinating and
complex processes and discoveries of theoretical physics with the world.
Justin Malecki, Ontario Energy Board
Policy Advisor
Justin Malecki is a Toronto-based energy professional, currently advising the Ontario Energy Board on matters related to the regulation of electricity and natural gas. Prior to advising the OEB, Justin has advised the Ontario government through his work at the Ontario Ministry of Energy, served as Chief Operating Officer during the creation of Ideas Roadshow and worked as an analyst at the renewable energy consulting firm ClearSky Advisors. Justin holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of British Columbia and an Honours BSc in physics from the University of Waterloo with a research focus on condensed matter, quantum gravity and general relativity.
Alexander Radovic, Borealis AI
Alexander Radovic is a former particle physicist, currently working as a Machine Learning researcher at Borealis AI. He earned his PhD in particle physics from University College London working on the MINOS neutrino oscillation experiment. After his PhD he worked as a Postdoc with the College of William and Mary, based at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, contributing the MINOS, NOvA, and DUNE neutrino oscillation experiments.
As a high-energy particle physicist his interest in understanding classification tools lead him to learn about, develop, and implement deep learning software to enable cutting edge physics research. During his career in particle physics, Alex contributed to a number of published state of the art measurements of neutrino oscillations, directed a research group on the NOvA experiment, and acted as lead author on a review of the use of machine learning in particle physics for the journal Nature.
As a Machine Learning Researcher at Borealis AI, he uses that same skill set to develop solutions for hard, unsolved financial industry problems, and to transfer the latest advances in fundamental machine learning into applied machine learning solutions.”
René Stock, Scotiabank
René Stock is Vice-President for Market Risk Measurement at the Analytics, AI and Machine Learning Centre of Excellence at Scotiabank. René is a key subject matter expert in emerging trends in market and counterparty credit risk and leads a team of 30 quants to develop and oversee risk measures, models and processes for the bank’s derivative and securities financing transaction portfolios. He represents Scotiabank in discussions with regulators and policy groups on key methodology and risk modelling issues. In previous roles at Scotiabank, René was instrumental in leading Scotiabank to become the first Canadian bank to obtain OSFI approval for using internal models for counterparty credit risk capital as well as overseeing a major modernization of the counterparty credit risk capital calculation and analytics system.
René previously also served as Director for Policy, Science to Business Network, a non-profit organization that furthers non-academic career development to enhance innovation and commercialization in Canada. René holds a PhD in Physics from the University of New Mexico in the area of Quantum Computing and Information Processing, and an MBA in Finance from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Alexandra Terrana, Minerva
Assistant Professor of Computational Sciences and Natural Sciences at Minerva
Alex grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and graduated with a BSc in Honours Math and Physics from McMaster University. She completed Perimeter Institute's PSI program during 2012-2013, and then went on to obtain her PhD, working jointly at York University and Perimeter Institute. Her PhD research was in the field of theoretical cosmology and gravitation under the supervision of Matthew Johnson.
While Alex enjoyed her graduate research, she could not imagine doing research as a career. Instead, she wished to pursue her passion for teaching and education. While finishing her PhD, she came across an opportunity with Minerva Schools at KGI that led to her dream job. Minerva is a new and unique four-year liberal arts college that is aiming to reinvent higher education. They are revolutionary in many ways, including their innovative curriculum, dedication to evidence-based pedagogy, the global experience gained by students living in seven different cities over four years, and the cutting-edge education technology enabling interactive online classes.
Alex is currently an Assistant Professor of Computational Sciences and Natural Sciences at Minerva. This full-time teaching position, involving both teaching and curriculum design, is everything Alex could have wanted and more. She loves the challenge of making seemingly complex material accessible and exciting for students. Plus, having the opportunity to be part of the process of building a university from scratch at Minerva is truly rewarding.
Rowan Thomson, Carleton University
Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor, Carleton University
Rowan Thomson's PhD research was in theoretical high-energy physics (Superstring Theory) at Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo, and was awarded Waterloo's Pearson Medal. Dr. Thomson's post-PhD research is in Medical Physics: computational radiotherapy physics. She develops computational approaches for simulating the interactions of radiation with matter and considers applications in radiotherapy for cancer treatment. Dr. Thomson became a faculty member at Carleton University in 2010, and was named a Canada Research Chair in 2013. She was awarded the Polanyi Prize in Physics in 2011 and an Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2015. Dr. Thomson is active in professional organizations, e.g., as co-chair of a task group of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and as a member of several inter-societal task and working groups. She is an Associate Editor for the top-tier journal Medical Physics.
Nipun Vats, Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Assitant Deputy Minister, Science and Research Sector
Nipun Vats is the Assistant Deputy Minister, Science and Research Sector, at the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. In this role, he is responsible for supporting federal policy and investments in post-secondary research, playing a coordinating role for federal intramural science, and facilitating the development of a digital research infrastructure strategy.
Dr. Vats has held a variety of positions within the federal government. These positions include supporting the development and implementation of the Government's overall agenda wthin the Priorities and Planning Secretariat of the Privy Council Office as well as leading the policy and administration of the major transfer payment programs to the Provinces and Territories at the Department of Finance. He has also served as Secretary to a National Advisory Panel on Energy Science and Technology. Prior to becoming an Assistant Deputy Minister, Dr. Vats served as the lead federal official in the successful negotiation of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement
Dr. Vats has a long-standing professional interest in scientific and social science research. He holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Toronto, a BSc in Physics from Dalhousie University, and a Master's of Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, with a specialization in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy.
Borealis AI
Borealis AI is the R&D arm of RBC, and consists of a team of researchers, research engineers, data scientists, and software developers dedicated to solving today’s leading problems in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. With a focus on curiosity-driven research, our team is dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art by publishing at top-tier conferences, developing impactful products with the potential to reach millions of people, and supporting the broader AI community.
CIBC Data Studio
The CIBC Data Studio team is an innovation hub of data science within CIBC, and is leading the way in applying the best practices in machine learning, AI, and the latest in advanced analytics technology platforms. Our team of Data Scientists and Software Developers apply latest tools and techniques to solve challenging business problems and bringing innovative solutions. The Data Studio team frequently interacts with diverse groups across the organization such as client facing, operational risk and capital markets. The team works with real world structured and unstructured datasets to produce end-to-end solutions, taking models from experiment to deployment. We collaborate with the most exciting new companies in the space of AI and machine learning, and engage in collaborations with leading academic researchers to promote the exchange of ideas and enrich our talent.
Communitech
Communitech is a public-private innovation hub that supports a community of more than 1,400 companies — from startups to scale-ups to large global players. Communitech helps tech companies start, grow and succeed in three distinct ways:
- Communitech is a place - the centre of gravity for entrepreneurs and innovators. A clubhouse for building cool shit and great companies
- Communitech delivers programs - helping companies at all stages with access to capital, customers and talent.
- Communitech partners in building a world-leading ecosystem - making sure we have all the ingredients (and the brand) to go from a small startup to a global giant.
Creative Destruction Lab
The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a seed-stage program for massively scalable science-based technology start-ups. This nine-month program – structured around five summit-type meetings – pairs start-up founders with experienced entrepreneurs and investors who set focused, measurable objectives to achieve over fixed timelines. By leveraging the start-up data gathered since CDL's inception in 2012, the CDL-AI Project aims to build learning models that predict future financing events of start-ups.
Christie Digital
Christie Digital Systems is a global visual, audio and collaboration solutions company offering full solutions for business, entertainment and industry. Globally, Christie employs over 1,300 people and has installed over 100,000 projectors worldwide. Christie is credited with introducing digital projection technologies that set the stage for the modern movie theatre. Its commitment to the film industry is seen through innovative projection and audio solutions including premium, 4K high-resolution projectors, immersive audio and the introduction of RGB laser projection. With a track record of pushing technological boundaries by developing disruptive products and solutions, Christie continues to grow as an end-to-end digital display solution company – offering the hardware, software and professional services to inspire our customers.
Insight
We are a professional educational startup that helps quantitative PhDs and postdocs make the transition from academia to a career in data science. The Fellows in our program learn data science by creating and developing data projects while getting exposed to data science from industry professionals that come to speak to them every day. Our Fellows have been hired across North America at leading companies like Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Airbnb, Yelp, etc, as well as many smaller startups.
Jrop
Jrop is building a scalable property mapping solution to streamline pick-ups and drop-offs for ridesharing, delivery and driverless cars. We dynamically allocate staging areas that optimize operational metrics for passengers, vehicles and property managers on a per-trip basis, and improve their locations over time using AI/ML. Our mission is to provide global access to Level 5 autonomy by solving the last-meter problem. www.jrop.co
Shopify
Shopify is the leading multi-channel commerce platform. Merchants use Shopify to design, set up, and manage their stores across multiple sales channels, including mobile, web, social media, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops.
The platform also provides merchants with a powerful back-office and a single view of their business, from payments to shipping. The Shopify platform was engineered for reliability and scale, making enterprise-level technology available to businesses of all sizes. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify currently powers over 800,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries and is trusted by brands such as Unilever, Kylie Cosmetics, Allbirds, MVMT, and many more.
Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is in the business of helping our Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. Founded in Canada in 1865, Sun Life has been a trusted name for generations. Today, Sun Life serves millions of Clients in Canada, the United States, Asia, the U.K. and other parts of the world. Our range of protection and wealth management businesses supports our continued growth and a bright future ahead.