Funding secured for the Max Planck – University of Ottawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics – German ambassador guest during the annual meeting

Second half for the Max Planck – University of Ottawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics (MPC-EQP): After a very successful evaluation, the Max Planck Society has extended the German-Canadian collaboration for another five years. This allows the partners – the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen, the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) in the Canadian capital and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching – to strengthen their ties through workshops, student and researcher exchanges as well as through joint research projects.

The Max Planck – University of Ottawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics covers a wide range of research topics: starting with nanophotonics, through ultrafast and intense light pulses and last but not least to biophotonics. During the five years of its existence, the centre lead to nearly 60 joint publications.

In order to plan for the future, the next annual meeting of MPC-EQP was held from October 19th to 20th. The leading team consisting of Professor Robert Boyd, Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Quantum Nonlinear Optics, Professor Florian Marquardt, Managing Director and head of Theory Division at MPL, Professor Paul Corkum, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Attosecond Photonics, and Professor Gerd Leuchs, head of the Optics and Information Emeritus Group at MPL, worked together with the fellows of the Centre to define the agenda for the next five years.

During the virtual event, the German Ambassador to Canada Sabine Sparwasser gave a speech about scientific cooperation between Germany and Canada. In addition, representatives of the Max Planck-UBC-Tokyo Center for Quantum Materials and the MPC-EQP explored possibilities for a collaboration during a panel discussion. The Center for Quantum Materials is the second German-Canadian partnership initiated by the Max Planck Society. There is a total of 20 such centres in 13 different countries worldwide.