Donors and dignitaries helped break ground yesterday for the Quantum-Nano Centre. A tent on the building's site, north of Biology II, sheltered the audience from afternoon showers as brief speeches were made. And then the silver shovels swung into action to make the first tentative holes for the massive building, which will take more than two years to complete. Donors Mike (of Research In Motion) and Ophelia Lazaridis beamed; Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, who spoke for the cameras in both English and French about the importance of innovation to the province's economic future, shook many hands.

Shovels begin $160 million project

a news release issued yesterday by the UW media relations office

The University of Waterloo is breaking ground on a $160 million investment designed to propel the university and the country to the forefront of the science of the very small. The university is beginning construction of the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre (QNC).

The new centre will be home to not one but two forefront areas of science and engineering — quantum information technology and nanotechnology. Quantum deals with the atomic and sub-atomic levels, where the usual laws of physics do not apply; things can, for instance, exist in two places at the same time. Nanotechnology deals with the fabrication and behaviour of materials, devices and systems in the size range of atoms or molecules, generally 100 nanometres or smaller.

The genius and beauty of the quantum-nano concept lies in the unique combination of strengths that result. The potential synergies produced by nano and quantum researchers working side by side will be unique and groundbreaking. No other quantum group in the world has a direct in-house bridge to a major nanotech institute and no nanotech centre has the opportunity to partner in developments at the leading edge of quantum information technologies.

"This is an exciting time for science and the University of Waterloo," says UW chancellor Mike Lazaridis. "In addition to housing state-of-the-art research labs, this new building will provide a unique and cutting-edge environment that will bring together the brightest minds in basic and applied research to explore and advance quantum computing and nanotechnology."

The facility will be home to the Institute for Quantum Computing, the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology and UW's undergraduate program in nanotechnology engineering. It will be able to accommodate the needs of up to 400 academics, equally split between the quantum and nano sides, with most coming from the faculties of engineering, mathematics and science.

"The Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre will be the first research facility of its kind in the world," says Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty. "That kind of innovation is the cornerstone of the economy we are building in Ontario in the 21st century."

The five-storey facility will be the most complex scientific building on campus. Significant features include a 10,000-square-foot class 100 and 1000 clean room with state-of-the-art fabrication facilities for quantum and nano devices, an advanced metrology suite, extensive teaching and research laboratories, seminar rooms and offices.

Mechanical and electrical systems account for close to 50 per cent of the construction costs. The building will feature low vibration, low electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference environments employing advanced structural, mechanical and electrical designs.

"This is a significant investment, not just in the University of Waterloo, but in Ontario and Canada," says David Johnston, president of the university. "The provincial government, Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis, and all other supporters of this project should be commended for helping UW researchers excel at the forefront of quantum information and nanotechnology."

The Government of Ontario is providing $50 million for construction of QNC. Another $22 million is coming from a $50 million donation from the Lazaridis family. The remaining funding involves federal funding, private donations and university funds.

The Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre is scheduled to open late in 2010 or early 2011.

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'Outstanding' status for 69 profs

"Outstanding performance awards" have been given to 69 professors in the fifth year of the program, which recognizes “the top 10 per cent of the faculty”.

A fund for such increases was created as part of UW’s annual faculty salary process in 2004. It provides permanent salary increases for the individuals selected, based on performance ratings for the previous year (in this case, spring 2008 ratings, with the increases effective May 1, 2008). A faculty member can’t receive one of the awards any oftener than every third year.

"I am very pleased to announce the award recipients," provost Amit Chakma says in a memo listing them, "and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them for their outstanding contributions to the University of Waterloo."

Award winners include 4 faculty in applied health sciences, 14 in arts, 18 in engineering, 4 in environmental studies, 15 in mathematics and 14 in science. Last year a total of 75 faculty members received the awards, with increases that were effective in May 2007.

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Researchers seeking to 'heritagize'

from the web site of the faculty of environmental studies

Planning professor Robert Shipley, director of UW’s Heritage Resources Centre, is part of a group of 12 researchers from across Canada awarded a $2 million SSHRC Strategic Cluster grant to develop a Canadian Forum on Public Research in Heritage.

The intent is to mobilize divergent groups with an interest in heritage to create synergistic networks, a broader understanding of the subject and to “heritagize” resources. Other goals include attracting young researchers to heritage research, making new connections between researchers, professionals and citizens through the use of resources such as teleconferences, blogs, wiki-style online databases and more traditional means such as conferences and publications.

While heritage is an increasingly important economic asset the difficulty of integrating such a transdisciplinary topic has often left it isolated within universities and divided by provincial and municipal jurisdictional boundaries. The CFPRH aims to foster a truly pan-Canadian vision and make Canada a hub of global research in the field of heritage.

The team, which includes five Canada Research Chairs, is led by two professors at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Shipley brings his international expertise on the economics of heritage, governance of heritage institutions and evaluation of conservation led urban regeneration. Shipley’s skills will complement the expertise of architectural historians, heritage building specialists and designers that make up the rest of the group.

Shipley is the chair person of a National Round Table on Heritage Education founded last year at the annual conference of the Heritage Canada Foundation in Edmonton and has been assisting the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and Community Heritage Ontario in their formation of a strategy to improve the public understanding of heritage issues in this province.

CAR

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