My apologies for what happened earlier. I'm not sure what happened.
In any event, my name is Rob Myers. I'm the director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics here in Waterloo, Ontario.
I'd like to start by thanking the committee for the important work you're doing in helping to shape Canada's future.
Here's a bit about Perimeter. We're an independent, non-profit research centre that's supported by a public-private partnership. We're not funded like universities. We're not eligible for most granting council programs.
While I have no particular ask today, I do agree with past witnesses who've shared the need for stable and continuing support for Canada's research community and in particular for our talent pipelines.
Perimeter has a single focus, which is to pursue breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe. Such breakthroughs are vital. One major discovery in physics can have profound long-term ramifications for all of science and technology, but it's a long game.
Currently at Perimeter we're the home to 25 permanent faculty, 22 faculty who are part time and appointed with nearby universities, over 50 post-doctoral researchers and about 80 graduate students registered with nearby universities. When we think about recruitment, we think about recruitment at all of those levels. As you've heard, it's getting harder and harder to recruit talent for Canadian research organizations, so I want to share some thoughts on our approach.
Talent attraction is not just about a competitive salary, although that's important. Part of the strategy we take is calculated risks on unusual thinkers. We look for bold researchers who are brilliant, ambitious and adventurous. Most of them have multiple offers, so we need to provide something special. To attract them, we provide opportunities and experiences to maximize their potential: no teaching requirements, a collaborative atmosphere, freedom from the publish-or-perish treadmill, great administrative services and the flexibility to capitalize on new research opportunities. I must add that brilliant people want to work with other brilliant people. There's a strong cluster effect here at the institute and throughout “Quantum Valley” in the Waterloo region.
Let's look at some examples. On the first slide, we see the image just unveiled this morning of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of our own galaxy. It's a very challenging picture to take, and Perimeter's Avery Broderick was instrumental in this effort. Avery, who's cross-appointed at the University of Waterloo, was attracted here because of the support we could offer in the form of a research community, computing resources and resources for students and post-docs. In turn, Avery has given Canada a share in historic scientific achievements. That, in turn, helps us attract more talent.
On slide number two we see Kendrick Smith. Kendrick doesn't fit the usual categories that a university might look for; however, at Perimeter, he found the freedom to combine his talents in theoretical research, software engineering and data analysis. His software innovations have transformed Canada's giant telescope into a global leader in radio astronomy. Interestingly, the same software that Kendrick developed is now used to stress-test computer chips for a large manufacturer.
The last emblem that you see in the bottom corner is to remind me that, also during the pandemic, Kendrick applied his skills in collaboration with the medical community to develop a software package that helps us track COVID mutations.
Moving to slide three, we see Estelle Inack, originally from Cameroon. She chose Canada over a very lucrative position with a U.S. tech giant. She came here because she wanted to pursue her ideas with Canadian Roger Melko, who leads the Perimeter Institute Quantum Intelligence Lab. Today she's not only a top researcher who is producing innovative new machine learning algorithms, but she's also founded a start-up in Toronto based on her research.
These are just three people whom we've been able to recruit.
In closing, I just want to note that although I started by talking about the long game, it's interesting how that strategy has short-term payoffs, which I've tried to illustrate with these examples.
Thank you.