Raymond Laflamme
Program
Quantum Information Processing
Appointment
Ivey Foundation Fellow, Director
Institution
University of Waterloo
Country
Canada 
Ray Laflamme is the Director of CIFAR's Quantum Information Processing Program. He was born in Quebec City and did his undergraduate studies in Physics at Université Laval. He then moved to Cambridge, England, where did his Ph.D. in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) under the direction of Stephen Hawking. He and Don Page are responsible for having changed Hawking's mind on the reversal of the direction of time in a contracting Universe (see his book "A brief history of time").
After his Ph.D., Dr. Laflamme became a Killam post-doctoral fellow at UBC. He moved back to Cambridge in 1990 as a Research Fellow at Peterhouse. He eventually settled down for nine years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, arriving as a post-doctoral fellow. He became an Oppenheimer Fellow in 1994, then became Technical Staff in 1997.
In 2001 he returned to Canada to join the newly founded Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University of Waterloo, where he and Michele Mosca have started the Institute for Quantum Computing. In 2002, he won the Premier Research Award and, in 2008, the Premier's Discovery Award (both prizes awarded by the Government of Ontario). He became Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008. He has also been Scientific Director of The Quantum Tamers: Revealing our Weird & Wired Future, an international award winner documentary on quantum mechanics.
Dr. LaFlamme’s interests are theoretical methods for error control in quantum devices, the use of quantum computer to simulate quantum systems, experimental implementation of small quantum information processing devices and the investigation of optical systems including linear elements, single photons source and detectors for quantum information processing devices.
After his Ph.D., Dr. Laflamme became a Killam post-doctoral fellow at UBC. He moved back to Cambridge in 1990 as a Research Fellow at Peterhouse. He eventually settled down for nine years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, arriving as a post-doctoral fellow. He became an Oppenheimer Fellow in 1994, then became Technical Staff in 1997.
In 2001 he returned to Canada to join the newly founded Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University of Waterloo, where he and Michele Mosca have started the Institute for Quantum Computing. In 2002, he won the Premier Research Award and, in 2008, the Premier's Discovery Award (both prizes awarded by the Government of Ontario). He became Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008. He has also been Scientific Director of The Quantum Tamers: Revealing our Weird & Wired Future, an international award winner documentary on quantum mechanics.
Dr. LaFlamme’s interests are theoretical methods for error control in quantum devices, the use of quantum computer to simulate quantum systems, experimental implementation of small quantum information processing devices and the investigation of optical systems including linear elements, single photons source and detectors for quantum information processing devices.