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RECRU I TMENT
RECRUITMENT
THE
BMO
FINANCIAL
GROUP
ISAAC
NEWTON
CHAIR
IN
THEORETICAL
PHYSICS
World-leading condensed matter theorist Xiao-Gang Wen has been recruited from MIT
to become the inaugural BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton Chair in Theoretical Physics at
Perimeter Institute.
In 2010, a leadership gift of $4 million from BMO Financial Group enabled the Institute to create
the first of a projected five Perimeter Research Chairs, designed to attract distinguished research
leaders from around the world. They will be named for the legendary scientists whose insights
helped define modern physics: Newton, Bohr, Dirac, Einstein, and Maxwell.
Wen is a global leader in the quest to discover new forms of matter. In 1989, he introduced the
notion of topological order, enabling physicists to describe a new class of matter – topological
matter – which exhibits quantum entanglement properties at macroscopic scales. This
breakthrough opened up major new research directions and topological matter is now one of
the most active research areas in condensed matter physics. Wen himself has subsequently
made major discoveries in the new field that he created, notably the discovery of “topological
insulators,” which show strong promise for use in quantum computers. Wen’s continued research
has implications well beyond his own field, advancing quantum information science, high-energy
physics, mathematics, and even the development of new models of the universe. The BMO Isaac
Newton Chair, which Wen will hold, is the first chair to be named for Newton worldwide.
IN 2010-11…
• Philip Schuster,
Natalia Toro, and
Guifre Vidal joined
Perimeter as
full-time Faculty
members
• Sung-Sik Lee and
Itay Yavin joined
Perimeter as
Associate Faculty
members jointly
appointed with
McMaster University
8
new
Distinguished
Research Chairs
were appointed
11
new
Postdoctoral
Researchers were
recruited
“My research is very interdisciplinary, which helps me find
totally new topics – unexplored areas of physics that no
one has touched before. It fits Perimeter’s philosophy and
research model very well.”
– Xiao-Gang Wen
Left to right: Director Neil Turok, Professor Xiao-Gang Wen, President and CEO of BMO Financial Group William Downe, and Perimeter Board Chair Mike Lazaridis