Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Light is the major source of energy that powers life on earth, and controlling it enabled the evolution of human civilization to our current modern society. Today, many of the technologies we take for granted, from smartphones to routine electronic payment, exist thanks to photonics, the science of light. Photonics represents a $CAD 650 billion dollar global market, generating close to $CAD 4.6 billion dollars in annual revenue in Canada. Although smartphones seem to be in every hand, photonic-based technologies remain low profile in Canada. A major challenge retarding this industry is the lack of predictability in going from liquid solution to solid state application. In other words, the properties of molecules discovered in the laboratory under idealized conditions might not translate into photonic technologies, where molecules are in close proximity to one another.
The fundamental goal of my research program is to address this challenge. NSERC funding will enable my research team to engineer and synthesize both “smart molecules” and nanoparticles that permit a molecular level understanding of the optical and photochemical changes associated with molecular proximity. This fundamental scientific knowledge is key to empowering the photonic industry with an a priori elusive predictability, thus improving performance, accuracy and ultimately cost of photonic technologies. The research conducted by my group fosters new opportunities for Canada to be promoted from minor player to world leader in photonics.