Robert Myers

Robert Myers is one of the leading theoretical physicists working in the area of quantum fields and strings. He received his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1986, after which he was a postdoctoral researcher at what became the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He moved to McGill University in 1989, where he was a Professor of Physics until moving in the summer of 2001 to become a founding faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and an adjunct faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. He served in many leadership roles at Perimeter, including serving at the Executive Director from 2019 to 2024.

Professor Myers was awarded the Herzberg Medal in 1999 by the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) for seminal contributions to our understanding of black hole microphysics and D-branes. He is also the 2005 winner of Canada's top prize in theoretical and mathematical physics awarded by the CAP and the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2012, he was awarded the Vogt Medal by the CAP and TRIUMF for outstanding theoretical contributions to subatomic physics. In 2018, he was presented the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo. In 2023, he was awarded the CAP Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Physics and in 2024, he as appointed a CAP Fellow. In both instances, this recognition was given for his ground-breaking research in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, and his service to the Canadian theoretical physics community, especially through his central role in the founding of the Perimeter Institute. He is one of the few people to have won the first-place award in the Gravity Research Foundation Essay Contest more than once (winning in 1995 and 1997). Past winners of this contest, which was established for the purpose of stimulating thought and encouraging work on gravitation, include Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose. Professor Myers is frequently recognized for his status as influential researcher. For example, he appeared as the only Canadian theoretical physicist in the 2016, 2017 and 2021 editions of Clarivate Analytics’ annual list of most impactful researchers in the world. From 2001 to 2005, he was a founding member on the scientific advisory board of the Banff International Research Station, a facility devoted to hosting workshops and meetings in the mathematical sciences and related areas. Professor Myers has also served on the editorial boards of the following research journals: Annals of Physics (January 2002 - July 2012) and Journal of High Energy Physics (May 2007 - present). 
Though his current activities are centered at Perimeter Institute, Professor Myers remains active in both teaching and supervising graduate students with his cross-appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Waterloo.

I am a member of the Quantum Fields and Strings group at Perimeter. While I have broad interests in theoretical physics, my research has primarily focused on  string theory and quantum gravity. Much of my recent work has involved developing applications of a set of theoretical tools that has emerged from string theory, known as the AdS/CFT correspondence or more broadly as gauge/gravity duality. I am also very interested in studying the connections between quantum gravity and quantum information theory.