As of September 2018, I am the manager of scientific outreach at the Institute for Quantum Computing, nestled in the campus of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. My job is to relay the science behind the growing field of quantum information to whoever is willing to listen.
When I’m not spreading the word of quantum, I’m also a research physicist investigating ultrafast quantum optics, looking at ways to generate and measure quantum phenomena in the colours of single photons. From September 2011 to December 2016, I was a PhD student at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo in the Quantum Optics and Quantum Information group led by Dr. Kevin Resch. My research focus was on nonlinear optics as it applies to quantum descriptions of light, as well as how to use nonlinear optics to shape photons for greater applicability, although I also studied fundamental properties of quantum correlations. I earned my PhD in 2016 with the thesis “Ultrafast manipulation of single photons using dispersion and sum-frequency generation.”
From January 2017 to August 2018, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Paderborn University in Germany. I investigated ultrafast temporal and spectral control of quantum light using nonlinear waveguides in the Integrated Quantum Optics groups led by Prof. Dr. Christine Silberhorn, as part of the QCUMbER project.
I studied for my BSc at the University of Windsor from September 2007 to August 2011. I had co-op work terms in theoretical quantum control (with Dr. Chitra Rangan at UWindsor), high-energy atom trapping (with Dr. John Behr at TRIUMF in Vancouver), and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (with Dr. Rob Schurko at UWindsor). I was raised and went to high-school in Chatham, Ontario, birthplace of the Hawaiian pizza. When bored, I share dumb opinions about movies.
My full CV can be downloaded here, and an online list of publications can be found here. You can reach me by email at jdonohue[at]uwaterloo.ca .
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