Award honours Perimeter's impact on high-skills labour market
Perimeter Institute has been recognized by the Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto for its role in training the scientists of the future.
In presenting Perimeter with the “Labour” award, the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) cited the Institute’s training programs for the next generation of physicists, from university courses and undergraduate summer research projects to research opportunities for PhD students and graduate fellows.
Perimeter Director of Academic Programs, James Forrest, accepted the award during the “Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence” conference at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
“There was a strong recognition that even though the problems our researchers and students work on are not necessarily easily transformed into new companies, the programs have tremendous value,” Forrest said.
“They recognized that being useful does not always mean you can make a product with it now, or even in the near future, and that recruiting and training young minds from all over the world has a huge benefit. I think that we were basically recognized for becoming an effective talent magnet.”
The CDL awards are designed around the primary ingredients in prevailing models of economic growth: labour, capital, and ideas.
Other recipients for 2017 were Doina Precup, associate professor in the School of Computer Science at McGill University, and Graham Collingridge, Ernest B. and Leonard B. Smith Chair in the University of Toronto’s Department of Physiology. Both were honoured in the “Ideas” category.
The Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) received the “Capital” award. IRAP provides non-dilutive capital to small- and medium-sized enterprises in Canada to accelerate technological innovation.
About PI
Perimeter Institute is the world’s largest research hub devoted to theoretical physics. The independent Institute was founded in 1999 to foster breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of our universe, from the smallest particles to the entire cosmos. Research at Perimeter is motivated by the understanding that fundamental science advances human knowledge and catalyzes innovation, and that today’s theoretical physics is tomorrow’s technology. Located in the Region of Waterloo, the not-for-profit Institute is a unique public-private endeavour, including the Governments of Ontario and Canada, that enables cutting-edge research, trains the next generation of scientific pioneers, and shares the power of physics through award-winning educational outreach and public engagement.
