Dr. Alexandre G. Brolo is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. He obtained his M.Sc. from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil)and his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo (Canada) in 1998. Dr. Brolo’s research interests are on the fabrication of nanostructured metal surfaces; the investigation of their optical properties; and their application in single molecule spectroscopy.  Dr. Brolo has participated as author/co-author iin about 180 peer-reviewed research papers, reviews and book chapters. He is well-known for his work on the development of new types of surface Plasmon resonance sensors and on the field of surface-enhanced spectroscopy, particularly on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The Brolo group is investigating the generation of entangled photons from single molecule emissions that can be used for quantum information processes.

Sarah Burke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. She obtained her PhD from the University of McGill in 2009 and joined UBC in 2010. The principal aim of her research is to build an understanding of important electronic and optoelectronic processes in a wide range of materials from the atomic scale up. In particular, the role of interfaces in organic and nanoscale materials is often of crucial importance for applications oriented processes, yet is frequently not fully understood. Scanning probe microscopy offers the ability to investigate such interfaces at the atomic level. Dr. Burke’s research makes use of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques including atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) and at low temperatures (~4K). This clean, low-temperature environment allows the characterization of well defined systems, with sufficiently high energy resolution for most organic and nanoscale systems of interest, and with the level of stability required to achieve measurements on individual nanostructures.

The most ambitious application for silicon photonics – Chrostowski’s expertise – is in quantum computing.  Silicon­ photonic approaches offer the potential for scaling to millions of qubits owing to the small device size and wafer­-scale manufacturing.  Chrostowski’s research is focused on developing the ingredients necessary to build a scalable fault-­tolerant QC, including designing novel nano­photonic components for quantum information processing (lasers, single photon sources and detectors, spin qubit to photon coupling using resonators, optical switches, optical interconnects and low-loss coupling to the outside world), developing novel fabrication techniques, and building experimental apparatus for experimenting with quantum photonic circuits at cryogenic temperatures. Chrostowski was the Program Director of the NSERC CREATE Silicon Electronic-Photonic Integrated Circuits (Si-EPIC) research training program, which has expanded into a fabrication consortium, SiEPICfab (www.siepic.ubc.ca), and is the Program Director of the NSERC CREATE Quantum Computing program.  He is a collaborator on the Canada Fund for Innovation (CFI) / BCKDF project, ‘The Silicon Quantum Leap: Tools for Building a Universal Quantum Computer’, and his NSERC Discovery Grant is “Silicon Photonics for Quantum Computing”.

Prototype “noisy” quantum computers based on several different technologies are now accessible over the cloud. However, the level of noise is often 10-100 times higher than the error correction threshold, hindering demonstrations of quantum advantage over conventional computers. The de Sousa research group is addressing this problem in both the hardware and software fronts. In hardware, the group is developing theory to elucidate the origin of noise and decoherence in the materials and devices used to build quantum computers. These theories are being compared to experiments at universities and companies around the world. In software, the research group is developing algorithms to benchmark and mitigate noise, and is using these findings to  improve the output of quantum algorithms in cloud-based devices.

Steve Dodge is an Associate Professor of Physics at Simon Fraser University who specializes in using femtosecond pulses of light to understand materials both in and out of equilibrium. His research focuses on quantum materials, including superconductors, magnetic materials, and topological electronic materials. He is an expert in a wide range of optical measurement techniques, including time-domain terahertz spectroscopy, pump-probe spectroscopy, coherent nonlinear optical spectroscopy, and polarization-sensitive measurements. He has been a Sloan Fellow, a Cottrell Scholar, and a member of the CIFAR Programs in Superconductivity, Quantum Matter, and Quantum Materials.

Reuven Gordon is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria. He has received a Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance Award (2001), an Accelerate BC Industry Impact Award (2007), an AGAUR Visiting Professor Fellowship (2009), the Canada Research Chair in Nanoplasmonics (2009-2019), the Craigdarroch Silver Medal for Research Excellence (2011), a Fulbright Fellowship (2016), an NSERC Discovery Accelerator (2017), the Faculty of Engineering Teaching Award (2017) and an JSPS Invitational Fellowship (2020). He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), the Society for Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), and the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Dr. Gordon has authored and co-authored over 170 journal papers (including 13 invited contributions). He is co-inventor for five patents and two patent applications. Dr. Gordon is a Professional Engineer of BC. Dr. Gordon has been recognized as an “Outstanding Referee” by the American Physical Society. He has also served as conference chair for several conferences, including SPIE NanoScience + Engineering and NFO16. Dr. Gordon is an Associate Editor for Optics Express and on the Editorial Advisory Board for Advanced Optical Materials. Dr. Gordon’s group researches single photon sources for quantum information technologies, as well as quantum plasmonics.

Nicolas Jaeger received his B.Sc. degree from the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, in 1981, and his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, in 1986 and 1989, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. Since 1989 he has been a faculty member in UBC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he is now a Professor in the area of Integrated Optics and Photonics. Currently, his research focuses on the design and application of integrated optic components for silicon-on-insulator platforms. Such silicon-photonic platforms are of current interest for the implementation of quantum-optic circuits and systems, such as those for quantum computing and quantum communications.

For his research, Professor Jaeger has received of the Canadian Institute of Energy’s “Research and Development” Award, the BC Advanced Systems Institute’s “Technology Partnership” Award, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Conference Board of Canada’s “Synergy” Award, the British Columbia Technology Industries Association’s “Excellence in Technical Innovation” Award, and the Canadian Association of Physicists and the National Optics Institute of Canada’s Medal for “Outstanding Achievement in Applied Photonics”  and, for his teaching/mentoring, Professor Jaeger has received the UBC Faculty of Applied Science’s “Killam Teaching Prize” and the UBC Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies’ “Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring.”

Kero is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University. Before joining SFU in 2020, Kero got his PhD at the University of Toronto, and worked as a postdoc fellow at Ulm University, Max Planck Institute, and University of Chicago. Kero is a theorist working on the interplay of quantum physics and quantum information, with the focus on bosonic quantum systems, i.e. systems that behave as harmonic oscillators. His current interests include studying the properties of engineered quantum systems (e.g. optomechanics, microwave in superconducting resonator, trapped ions, photon in waveguide), and analyzing the practical performance of various technologies (e.g. sensing, communication, computation, simulation).

Andrew MacRae is an adjunct Assistant Professor and Senior Lab Instructor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Victoria. He obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Calgary, studying the production of quantum optical states in atomic media. Following this, he studied Bose Einstein Condensates as a postdoc in the group of Dan M Stamper-Kurn at the University of California, Berkeley. He then spent a year as a software engineer making control algorithms for ultra-precise machining before joining UVic in 2016.

His present research direction is the mapping of quantum information into and out of atomic media, using nonlinear optical processes. The primary aim of this research is to create a reliable interface between qubits held in collective spin ensembles, and optical “flying” qubits that can be transported via optical fibers.

Sudip Shekhar received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 2003 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. From 2008 to 2013, he worked as a Research Scientist in the Circuits Research Laboratory at Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Oregon. He joined the department of ECE at University of British Columbia as an Assistant Professor in 2013. His research interests include circuits for high-speed I/O interfaces, Silicon Photonics, RF transceivers and sensor interfaces.

Dr Stephanie Simmons is an Assistant Professor, Canada Research Chair, and CIFAR Fellow, based out of the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and is the Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic Inc. Her work on silicon quantum technologies was awarded a Physics World Top Ten Breakthrough of the Year of 2013 and again in 2015, and she is one of only 5 individuals to have ever won this award twice. She was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2020, and her work has been covered by the New York Times, CBC, BBC, Scientific American, the New Scientist, and many others.

Mike Thewalt is a Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at Simon Fraser University who continues to do research into the optical properties of impurities and defects in semiconductors, with a focus on how these might be used as qubits and spin/photon interfaces.  The discovery and elucidation of the remarkable optical properties of highly enriched silicon-28 by his group in the early 2000’s led to a worldwide race to harness the properties of these systems for quantum applications.  His research has resulted in over 300 publications with nearly 12,000 citations, as well as 5 patents. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the American Physical Society (APS) and the Institute of Physics (IoP) of the UK.  He has served in many positions with the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), including as President, and on the Semiconductor Commission (C8) of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) for two three-year terms as member and one term each as Secretary and Chair.  He has held an NSERC Industrial Research Chair, a Sloan Fellowship, two NSERC Research Accelerator supplements and a Killam Research Fellowship.  His awards include the Gold Medal of the BC Science Council, the Rutherford Memorial Medal of the RSC, the Medal of Achievement and the Brockhouse Medal of the CAP, and the SFU Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision.

Jeff Young received his B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics from UBC in 1979, and his PhD degree in Physics from the University of Toronto in 1983.  He spent 9 years at the National Research Council in Ottawa, first in the Division of Physics, and then in the Institute of Microstructural Sciences, as a Research Officer and later as Group Leader.  In 1992 he returned to UBC in the Department of Physics, now the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  He has served as the Director of the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory from 2012-2017, as the Director of the Engineering Physics Program from 1998-2003, and the Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 2004-2008.  He has also served on the UBC senate, numerous NSERC committees, and as an advisor to NRC, TRIUMF and other organizations.  He has entrepreneurial experience in Vancouver, and is a Professional Engineer. His research interests mainly pertain to linear and nonlinear electrodynamics and the optical properties of materials.  For the past decade the focus has been on silicon-based integrated photonic circuits and the hybrid integration of quantum emitters and single photon detectors for quantum information processing.