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Jan09-offprint-Laflamme.pdf

Introduction to Herzberg Lecture

It is a great pleasure for me to give the Herzberg lecture, opening the 2008 Canadian Association of Physicists Congress at the Université Laval. Before I delve into the quantum world, I would like to thank the committee who have chosen me to give this lecture. It is also a great honor for me to have been introduced by René Roy, as he was a mentor to me. In 1981, I was a summer student here in Québec working in nuclear physics with Professor Roy. At that time, I could never have imagined that 27 years later I would be giving this lecture. I am also moved to give a lecture in the honour of Dr Gerard Herzberg, who has inspired a generation of Canadians. Finally, it is interesting to reflect on being here in Québec 400 years after its foundation. Only 100 years before that, John Cabot had just discovered Canada. That was an exciting time of discovery and exploration of a new world. Today, 100 years after the discovery of quantum mechanics, the first institutes to study quantum information processing are being founded and starting to explore the richness of the quantum world. I wonder what the field will look like 400 years from now.