Taking Frustration to the Ultimate Level

Condensed matter studies nets Waterloo physicist major Canadian science prize

Ottawa, Ontario, March 20, 2003 – Spend a day on the slopes with Dr. Michel Gingras if you want to understand the essence of his condensed matter physics research.

"When I lived in British Columbia, I liked to ski at Apex in the Okanagan Valley," says the University of Waterloo physics professor. "My favourite run there was an unnamed triple black diamond run. It's awesome. It's about the width of a building corridor and pasted with trees and rocks, and there's a creek that runs in the middle."

Navigating disorder is also at the heart of Dr. Gingras' science. Though this time it's about understanding randomness at the atomic level.

It is this world-leading research in the area of frustrated magnetic systems and glasses that today captured him a top Canadian science and engineering honour from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The Fellowship is one of six announced by Allan Rock, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC, Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, Minister of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development, and Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President of NSERC.

“NSERC Steacie Fellows are blazing trails for themselves and for Canada on the international research scene,” said Minister Rock. “They are leading Canada towards its goal of becoming one of the top five countries in the world for research and development.”

“These awards are public recognition for outstanding scientific achievement,” said Minister Pagtakhan. “Indeed this is Canada’s way of saying ‘thank you’ and giving outstanding scientists and engineers the opportunity and resources to bring their ideas to a new level of excellence.”

In a fridge magnet, all of the atoms' magnetic moments (north and south) point parallel to one another. However in some materials (including many new synthetic metal oxides), the magnetic moments can't arrange themselves in parallel, creating what's known as frustrated magnetism.

Frustrated magnets often form a “magnetic glass.” Named after real glass (think window or vase), glasses are a class of materials in which the atoms in the solid state are arranged randomly, rather than in a perfect, regular crystal lattice as is the case in most metallic solids. With magnetic glasses, the atomic moments point in random, non-parallel directions.

"These frustrated magnets are a template to study the fundamental issues involved in the formation of glasses," says Dr. Gingras. "What you learn from these systems has a scientific market that's much broader than the specific material or model that you're trying to understand."

For example, disordered systems are important in the study of high-temperature superconductivity, and in the creation of longer-life batteries and so-called ferromagnetic semiconductors, a class of materials in which the magnetic moments can be used to carry information in electronic devices. Understanding frustrated magnetism may also play a conceptual role in helping unify quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of gravity.

"It's only when a theoretical understanding of these frustrated systems is achieved that it will be possible to efficiently guide the chemical design of useful new materials with significant potential for applications," says Dr. Gingras, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Condensed Matter Theory and Statistical Mechanics at the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Gingras’ work involves collaboration with experimentalists at Canada's most advanced particle physics facilities, including the Muon Spin Resonance facility at TRIUMF (the Tri-University Meson Facility) in Vancouver, and a neutron scattering facility at Chalk River. He's been credited with forming important ties between these "nuts and bolts" practitioners and theoreticians.

"I'm like a mediator," says Dr. Gingras, who spent four years as a research associate at TRIUMF. "I'm in between the experimentalists and the hardcore theorists who only do pen and paper work. I'm able to understand and dialogue with both groups."

As an NSERC Steacie Fellow, Dr. Gingras will take frustration to a new level by considering the role of quantum mechanics in these disordered systems – a kind of triple black triangle run for physicists.

"In the history of solid state physics from the 1930s to the beginning of the 1990s, very few researchers made an effort to understand frustrated magnets in the presence of quantum fluctuations," says Dr. Gingras. "It's an important problem left dangling."

And one that will hopefully have a soft landing.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Michel Gingras
University of Waterloo
Telephone: (519) 885-1211, ext. 5697
E-mail: gingras@gandalf.uwaterloo.ca.

Arnet Sheppard
Manager, Newsbureau
Communications
NSERC
Telephone: (613) 995-5997
E-mail: axs@nserc.ca

The Prize

NSERC Steacie Fellowships are awarded to the most outstanding Canadian university scientists or engineers, who have earned their doctorate within the last twelve years. Nominations are received by NSERC from universities across Canada and the international impact of the individual’s work is judged by a distinguished panel of independent experts. The award includes increased research funding from NSERC and a payment to the university to allow the individual to pursue his or her research full-time. The winning Steacie Fellows are also eligible to compete for a special Canada Foundation for Innovation Career Award. The announcement of these awards will be made later.

The six winners this year are:

Dr. Gary Saunders (University of New Brunswick)
Dr. Victoria Kaspi (McGill University)
Dr. Zongchao Jia (Queen’s University)
Dr. Molly Shoichet (University of Toronto)
Dr. Kim Vicente (University of Toronto)
Dr. Michel Gingras (University of Waterloo).

Canada’s Innovation Strategy

Last year, the Government of Canada launched Canada’s Innovation Strategy, two papers that lay out a plan to address skills and innovation challenges for the next decade. The paper released by Minister Rock is entitled Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity. It proposes goals, targets and priorities for Canada over the next decade to: create knowledge and bring ideas to market more quickly; ensure a skilled workforce in the new economy; modernize business and regulatory policies while protecting the public interest; and strengthen communities by supporting innovation at the local level. Today’s announcement supports this strategy.

For more information about Canada’s Innovation Strategy or to obtain a copy of either Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians or Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity, please call 1-800-O CANADA
(1-800-622-6232) or visit http://www.innovationstrategy.gc.ca.