Louis Taillefer
Program
Quantum Materials
Appointment
Fellow, Program Director
Institution
Université de Sherbrooke
Country
Canada 
Dr. Louis Taillefer is a physicist and the Director of CIFAR’s Quantum Materials program. He investigates why some materials exhibit remarkable electronic properties, such as magnetism and superconductivity.
In the last decade, Dr. Taillefer has specialized in superconductors, materials that conduct electricity without any resistance. Recently, a team of CIFAR researchers and collaborators led by Dr. Taillefer made a major breakthrough by observing “quantum oscillations” in a high-temperature superconductor, providing direct insight into the nature of electron behaviour in these materials. Dr. Taillefer is aiming to understand how to make these superconductors useful for practical purposes such as power transmission, levitating trains, magnetic medical imaging, wireless communications, and much more.
Dr. Taillefer obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge in England, and worked there as a postdoctoral fellow, and then at the CNRS laboratory in Grenoble, France. He was a Professor of Physics at both McGill University and the University of Toronto before accepting his current position in 2002 at the University of Sherbrooke, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Quantum Materials. Dr. Taillefer has received numerous awards for his research, including an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from NSERC and the Herzberg Medal of the Canadian Association of Physicists. He was the youngest researcher to receive the Prix Marie-Victorin, the highest distinction given by the Government of Québec to a scientist. In 2007, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and, in 2008, won the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Medal of Achievement.
In 2010 Dr. Taillefer was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions to the physics of condensed matter, especially for his research on quantum materials and superconductors.
In the last decade, Dr. Taillefer has specialized in superconductors, materials that conduct electricity without any resistance. Recently, a team of CIFAR researchers and collaborators led by Dr. Taillefer made a major breakthrough by observing “quantum oscillations” in a high-temperature superconductor, providing direct insight into the nature of electron behaviour in these materials. Dr. Taillefer is aiming to understand how to make these superconductors useful for practical purposes such as power transmission, levitating trains, magnetic medical imaging, wireless communications, and much more.
Dr. Taillefer obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge in England, and worked there as a postdoctoral fellow, and then at the CNRS laboratory in Grenoble, France. He was a Professor of Physics at both McGill University and the University of Toronto before accepting his current position in 2002 at the University of Sherbrooke, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Quantum Materials. Dr. Taillefer has received numerous awards for his research, including an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from NSERC and the Herzberg Medal of the Canadian Association of Physicists. He was the youngest researcher to receive the Prix Marie-Victorin, the highest distinction given by the Government of Québec to a scientist. In 2007, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and, in 2008, won the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Medal of Achievement.
In 2010 Dr. Taillefer was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions to the physics of condensed matter, especially for his research on quantum materials and superconductors.