Christopher Wilson

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Biography Summary

Christopher Wilson is an Electrical and Computer Engineering Associate Professor cross-appointed to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. 

In 2004, Professor Wilson moved to Sweden to work on a quantum computing project at Chalmers University of Technology.  Along with his team, he started working on superconducting circuits for quantum computing.  Around 2007, they realized that the work could allow them to measure the virtual photons inside a vacuum.  These virtual photons are generated and annihilated in pairs.  About 40 years ago, it was suggested that a mirror moving near the speed of light could capture some of these photons.  The effect had never been observed, due to the difficulty of moving a massive object at that speed.  They made an electronic 'mirror' that they could effectively move at one-quarter of the speed of light using magnetic fields.  This allowed the team to separate the pairs, stopping them from annihilating and turning them into real photons that they could observe. 

Professor Wilson is continuing his work on quantum information, microwave quantum optics, and nonlinear dynamics at the University of Waterloo.  He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Wallmark Prize for 2012 awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy for his work on the Dynamical Casimir effect (DCE).  Professor Wilson’s work on DCE was named in the Top 5 Breakthrough of 2011 by Physics World and #1 Reader's Choice on Nature News.