Perimeter Institute: A quarter-century retrospective — Chapter One

Long before Mike Lazaridis became a famous entrepreneur and founder of the company that came to be known as BlackBerry, the inspirational seed for a world-class theoretical physics institute had already sprouted in his mind.

He was an undergraduate engineering student at the University of Waterloo when one of his professors, Lynn Watt, who had been taught quantum mechanics by Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi, decided to offer an optional evening course on great physics papers.

It was popular. Lazaridis found himself in a packed lecture hall filled with enthusiastic students, all eager to get a peek at what was then a brand new paper about an experiment conducted in 1982 by French physicist Alain Aspect. The paper offered proof – backed by experiment – that what Albert Einstein had previously derided as “spooky action at a distance” between highly correlated entangled particles does indeed happen.

“We were astounded,” Lazaridis recalls. “At first we had a hard time believing what Professor Watt was saying about what it implied.” Decades later, in 2022, Aspect would be co-awarded the Nobel Prize for his experiment and that paper. 

But for Lazaridis, it was the gateway into the wonders of theoretical physics.

“What you must understand is that at that time, all of this was still very controversial. Superposition and entanglement were still controversial. So for those of us in that class, the world changed dramatically in less than an hour,” Lazaridis says.

He also realized there were discoveries yet to be made; scientific revolutions yet to happen. 

Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity, had not yet been reconciled with quantum theory – and still hasn’t. Lazaridis understood that if this breakthrough could be achieved, it would have monumental consequences on par with the development of quantum theory 100 years ago, which led to all the amazing digital technologies we enjoy today.

“I knew that if it were possible, it would put us in a position to change the world, increase the reputation of our country, and could be a boon for future industry and wealth creation,” Lazaridis says.

That’s how the idea of having an entire institute devoted to theoretical physics started to form. Years later, in 1999, after Lazaridis founded Research In Motion (later called BlackBerry) and had the means, he set out to make it a reality. Perimeter Institute officially launched on October 23, 2000.

Perimeter is now entering its 25^th year, and anniversary celebrations are planned for throughout 2025.

Building Perimeter Institute

Lazaridis was well aware that he couldn’t create the institute he imagined on his own.

“Whenever you do something like this, you need to build it around the right leader, the right staff, the right team, the right board,” he says.

By chance, he got a letter from Howard Burton, who had his doctorate in physics and a master’s in philosophy, and who was looking for a job at the smartphone company in late 1999. When Lazaridis read the letter, he was intrigued. Here was someone who had a deep interest in physics and philosophy and might have the ability to make a theoretical physics institute a reality.

They met at a parking lot in Brampton (next to a building where Lazaridis was attending a business meeting), then went out for dinner in at Italian restaurant. “I asked him to draw up a plan,” Lazaridis says. “I said, ‘if you had the funding, how would you do it?’”

Burton took the task seriously. He did a lot of research, visiting theoretical physicists in esteemed halls of academia such as the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany, Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and Princeton University in the United States. 

He was searching for the magic ingredients that would conjure a genuinely great new physics institute. Lazaridis says Burton produced a plan that he code-named “Perimeter,” and the name stuck. In his book, First Principles: Building Perimeter Institute, Burton says he was thinking about a “circle of knowledge,” expanding outward and pushing the boundaries.

Burton’s plan convinced Lazaridis, and he signed on as the first director at the fledgling institute.

The next stage was to set up the board and a constitution, and, most importantly, to attract respected researchers from top international institutions. It was a tough sell: Perimeter was to be built in this mid-size Canadian city called Waterloo – that most of these researchers had never heard of – and convince them to join a theoretical physics institute that didn’t exist yet.

The other task was to convince federal and provincial officials to provide matching funding for what seemed to many outsiders as a pie-in-the-sky project with a payoff far in the future.

“It wasn’t a slam-dunk. It was hard work, really hard work,” Lazaridis recalls. “We were proposing something that had an exceptionally long timeline. It’s not like we were saying, ‘we will do this, and it will pay back to industry tomorrow.’”

But with Lazaridis behind the project — initially putting up more than $100 million, which was then a third of his net worth — the government funding and private donors came through. Much-needed support from both the federal and provincial governments helped make Perimeter possible.

So did support from the local community.

“I would like to recognize the support from the Waterloo community, businesses, and the City and Region of Waterloo governments, who from the early days helped choose the plot of land where Perimeter is currently nested at the heart of Uptown Waterloo, and who have, over the decades, helped Perimeter’s researchers and visitors feel at home and very welcomed,” Lazaridis says.

The founding board was comprised of a combination of technology entrepreneurs and academics.

Besides Lazaridis, the board included the late Douglas Wright, a former University of Waterloo president;  John Reid, a managing partner in KPMG;  Cosimo Fiorenza, who has gone on to play a leadership role Quantum Valley Investments where he has helped to establish numerous quantum technology start-up companies; the late Lynn Watt, the engineering professor whose undergraduate physics course had inspired Lazaridis, Kendall Cork, a former Research In Motion (RIM) director, and the late George Liebbrandt, who was a theoretical physicist in Guelph.

“I will always be incredibly grateful for their earnest support and tireless work over many years and during many challenges to help establish Perimeter and make it successful,” Lazaridis adds.

Burton and Lazaridis also recruited talented external scientists to form a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), who could provide expert impartial guidance to the young institute on matters of research direction. The first SAC included physics luminaries like Roger Penrose, James Hartle, Chris Isham, Artuk Ehert, Scott Tremaine, Ian Affleck, Cecilia Jarlskog, and Joe Polchinski.

The first SAC meeting took place in the spring of 2001. These highly regarded scientific advisors committed a great deal of time and energy to Perimeter, founding faculty member (and later director) Robert Myers recalls. “I know that Howard and the entire institute benefitted from their advice, guidance, and suggestions.”

When Perimeter started, the Institute’s internal research staff consisted of three faculty (Robert Myers, Lee Smolin, and Fotini Markopoulou) two associate faculty (Raymond Laflamme and Michele Mosca), and four postdocs (Olaf Dreyer, Oliver Winkler, John Brodie, and Konstantin Savvidis).

From vision to reality

In the 25 years since, Perimeter has grown to 25 research faculty, 22 research associate faculty members (who have joint appointments between Perimeter and other institutions); as well as 70 postdoctoral researchers from 26 countries; 79 PhD students from 29 countries, and 25 master's students from 18 countries.

Today, there is a constant churn of hundreds of visiting scientists, including visiting research chairs, fellows, seminar speakers, and other collaborators and guests. The Institute runs more than a dozen conferences every year, each bringing hundreds of scientists from around the world to collaborate in Waterloo. 

Perimeter is home to an award-winning educational outreach team too, including experienced educators who develop and distribute free teacher resources for the classroom. Every year, they conduct training for high school teachers around the world, so that modern physics reaches millions of young people in engaging and inspiring lessons. 

Perimeter’s public lectures, which were immensely popular right from the beginning, were initially held in various buildings in the region, wherever spaces large enough could be found. They are now held in Perimeter’s Mike Lazaridis Theatre of Ideas. The lectures consistently sell out in minutes, a testimony to how engaged the public is in wanting to know about the latest physics developments. For those who can’t get tickets, the lectures are streamed live online. And it’s not just public talks that find their way online. Perimeter’s seminars and workshops are made available for free to everyone in the Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive (PIRSA). All the classes and seminars can be accessed from anywhere in the world, by anyone, at any grade level, who wants to learn. They are a key resource for budding young physicists.

This huge growth curve over the course of 25 years was made possible by both government partners and generous donors, all committed to ensuring no one is left behind in the effort to create a society that is science-literate.

Lazaridis says the independence of the Institute – not being tied to the administration of any university – along with its training programs for young scientists and its public outreach efforts, make Perimeter unique in the world.

It has paid off.

“Perimeter Institute has exceeded all of our expectations,” Lazaridis says. “Its impact to Canada’s reputation globally has been significant and has also been a source of great pride to Canadians.”

As the 25 anniversary unfolds, Perimeter is starting yet a new chapter.

Robert Myers recently finished his five-year term as Perimeter’s third director (following Burton and Neil Turok), and is returning to full-time research at Perimeter. He holds the position of Director Emeritus and BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton Chair in Theoretical Physics. 

Marcela Carena has been appointed the next executive director. She is a distinguished particle physicist who previously served as Head of the Theory Division at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and a physics professor at the University of Chicago.

“I am pleased that the board chair Michael Serbinis, the board, and advisory committees have led such a robust and successful search that has culminated in the recruitment of such an accomplished, talented, respected and experienced new executive director for Perimeter’s next chapter,” Lazaridis says.

“I am so proud of all that Perimeter and its researchers and staff have achieved so far,” he says, adding that the next 25 years are bound to be “even more exciting.” 
 

This is part one of an ongoing series. In Chapter 2, discover how early risks and bold moves shaped Perimeter’s future.