Michael Serbinis
Welcome to Perimeter Institute’s annual report for 2023-24. It has been a whirlwind year for the Institute and for the innovation ecosystem here in Canada with achievements like Canada’s 4th Nobel Prize in Physics in 9 years, and the incredible advances in AI and quantum science.
Quantum research is top of mind as the United Nations has declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. There is an acceleration at hand, and ‘quantum’ is absolutely having a moment spurred on by the demands of AI, fundamental research breakthroughs, driven entrepreneurs and government policy. Quantum science has the potential to transform our world with the next economic supercycle of game changing innovations in areas like quantum computing, communications and sensing. Like artificial intelligence – a driver of today’s economy that earned Professor Geoff Hinton the Nobel Prize in Physics this fall – quantum technologies promise great benefits across all industries.
The road to our quantum future begins with basic research. If we want to reach the event horizon of breakout technologies, we can’t skip the step where talented minds peel back the layers to grasp the fundamentals.
That’s what Perimeter Institute is best at: bringing the world’s leading scientists together right here in Canada and setting them to work in an unconstrained environment, tasked only with one mandate – to ask the hardest questions in the universe. Our mission is simple yet bold- to drive breakthroughs that will change the world.
Perimeter is about to enter its twenty-fifth year. From a bold upstart, founded by Mike Lazaridis, Perimeter has become one of the top places to do world leading research in physics on the planet. The Institute has earned a reputation for taking an entrepreneurial approach to driving breakthroughs, spawning new avenues of research and forging new collaborations. From the deepest reaches of the cosmos to the smallest quantum particles, we’re leaving no stone unturned.
So in Perimeter’s twenty-fifth year, and the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, here are some things to watch. Perimeter’s quantum causal inference initiative, unparalleled in scope anywhere in the world, is changing how we understand causality, with implications for decision-making in everything from medical diagnostics to government policy. Quantum error-correction research is moving us closer to practical quantum computing step-by-step, and offering insights into fundamental physics along the way, including quantum gravity. In AI, Perimeter’s Quantum Intelligence Lab is discovering synergies between quantum and AI technologies with spectacular results. And that’s just a taste. Read on to learn about the past year in exploration at Perimeter. There’s a lot to be excited about.
