Light matter interaction 10:00 Vancouver - 11:00 Edmonton - 12:00 Winnipeg - 13:00 Montreal - 14:00 Halifax Keynote Ksenia Dolgaleva University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Light-Matter Interaction Abstract: NSERC CREATE TrUST educational program is dedicated to ultrafast and THz optics and deals with a plethora of related phenomena. At the basis of all these phenomena, there is light-matter interaction and underlying effects. Specifically, low-intensity interaction reveals such properties of optical materials as absorption and material dispersion, while high-intensity interaction is associated with nonlinear optical effects. The presentation on "Light-Matter Interaction" intends to overview fundamental aspects of linear and nonlinear optical interaction of light with matter. The talk is designed to be easy to follow and accessible to students of all levels. . Invited Soheil Zibod University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada THz Nonlinear Spectroscopy of Solids Abstract: The study of terahertz (THz) region of electromagnetic spectrum has gained an increasing attention in the scientific fields of late, due to its broad applications in biology and biomedical sensing, security systems and non-destructive testing. The introduction of intense THz sources with electric field peak values as large as 1MV/cm has made the study of nonlinear behaviour of different materials possible. The talk on "THz Nonlinear Spectroscopy of Solids" aims to introduce a digestible knowledge in THz nonlinear spectroscopy; with which we are able to explore the nonlinear spectroscopy of solids at THz frequencies, from different angles. .
THz spectroscopy 10:00 Vancouver - 11:00 Edmonton - 12:00 Winnipeg - 13:00 Montreal - 14:00 Halifax Keynote David G. Cooke Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebéc, Canada Overview of Time-domain THz Spectroscopy Techniques . Invited Nils Refvik Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Probing ultrafast carrier dynamics in HgCdTe thin films with THz spectroscopy .
Shiny and brilliant – Laser-plasma interactions for everyone 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote Louise Willingale Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. Exploring extreme plasma physics with multi-Petawatt laser pulses Abstract: State-of-the-art multi-Petawatt laser facilities coming online include the Zettawatt Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS), a user facility being commissioned at the University of Michigan. The 3-PW pulses will make ZEUS the highest power laser in the USA. This talk will describe the various experimental approaches that can be used to produce ultrashort particle beams and light-sources, as well as their application to study strong-field plasma physics and beyond. One area of interest is to create extremely strong magnetic fields within the hot plasma in the laboratory, so we can study the microphysics likely to be occurring around the most energetic objects in the universe Bio: Louise Willingale is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department and the Associate Director for the NSF ZEUS facility at the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. Prof. Willingale researches experimental high-intensity laser-plasma interactions, with a focus on relativistic electron heating, ion acceleration, proton radiography, magnetic-field generation, and reconnection. She received a MSci in Physics (2003) and a PhD in Plasma Physics (2007) from Imperial College London. In 2008, she moved to the University of Michigan, first as a Postdoctoral Researcher, then as an Assistant Research Scientist, before becoming an Assistant Professor in 2014. In 2018, she received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the NSF to study laser-driven magnetic reconnection. In 2022 she was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), became a Kavli Fellow, and was a Co-chair for the Multi-Petawatt Physics Prioritization (MP3) workshop and report . Invited Mangaljit Singh Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre (EMT), Advanced Laser Light Source Laboratory (ALLS), Varennes, Quebéc, Canada Resonant high-order harmonic generation from laser-ablated plumes Abstract: High-order harmonic generation is a highly nonlinear process that takes place when an intense ultrashort laser pulse, typically of femtosecond temporal duration, interacts with a media. High-order harmonic generation provides a table-top coherent source of extreme ultraviolet pulses with femtosecond and attosecond temporal pulse duration. However, the low harmonic conversion efficiency from the widely used noble gases is a critical issue (typically 10-6-10-7), generating harmonic energy per pulse at the nJ scale. An alternate source for high-order harmonic generation providing high extreme ultraviolet photon flux is resonant harmonic generation from the laser-ablated plume, with a high conversion efficiency of 10-4, generating μJ-level harmonic energies per pulse. During the seminar, I will present our recent investigations conducted in the Advanced Laser Light Source laboratory at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique - Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications (INRS - EMT) on high-order harmonic generation from laser-ablated plumes. Bio: Mangaljit obtained his Master's degree in Applied Optics from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India in the year 2016. Subsequently, in 2021, he completed his doctoral degree at INRS-EMT, under the guidance of Professor Tsuneyuki Ozaki. Currently, Mangaljit…
March 9th, 2022 Initiating collaboration between the European Extreme Light Infrastructure ELI and Canadian labs 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote Allen Weeks Director General, The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic The Extreme Light Infrastructure: Unprecedented Access to Advanced Laser-Based Research Facilities Abstract: The Extreme Light Infrastructure is among the world’s most advanced and diverse laser-based research infrastructures. The three ELI Facilities provide access to a very broad range of leading high-power, high-repetition-rate laser systems and secondary sources. Located in three different European countries, the labs include more than 700 scientists and staff from more than 40 different countries. An overview of the status of the facilities and the available offer to users will be presented. The ELI Facilities are in the process of ramping up the user programme and now, with the announcement of the 2nd Call. The current offer includes 5 primary laser systems and 10 secondary sources. The systems range from very short pulse (<10fs) kHz systems to petawatt class lasers. There are 11 end-stations and 6 stand-alone experimental platforms available. Areas of science include AMO, material science, condensed matter, surface science, cultural heritage, and nanoscience and much more. In addition to the user programme, ongoing commissioning activities will be presented as well as scientific initiatives Bio: Allen Weeks is Director General at the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), where he has been since 2017. In that time ELI has been established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium and the leading European high-power laser infrastructure, with locations in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Before joining ELI, Weeks led the In-Kind Coordination programme at the European Spallation Source ERIC (ESS) where he managed the effort that brought together over 50 European institutions to deliver more than €550 million to construction the leading next generation spallation neutron source. Weeks began working with European and global research infrastructures in 2005, coordinating the FERMI free-electron laser project in Trieste, Italy. He has experience in industry, having served as Executive Director at Instrumentation Technologies for business development. He spent six years in the pharmaceutical industry. . Invited Patrizio Antici Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre (EMT), Varennes, Quebéc, Canada Laser-accelerated secondary sources for material science applications Abstract: The advent of high-power (TW) ultra-short (fs-ps) lasers has recently opened up the field of laser-driven plasma acceleration, which includes the acceleration of electrons, protons and X-rays. The investigation of these secondary sources and its use has triggered considereable investments and is currently challenging many research laboratories worldwide, in particular for the improved characteristics of these sources such as compactness, versatility and tunability. Among the manifold applications that these sources can enable we can cite their use as injector for large scale accelerators, in medicine, fusion, materials science and cultural heritage. In this lecture I will give a brief overview about the use of laser-plasma sources for applications in material science Bio: Patrizio Antici studied engineering at Sapienza…
December 8th, 2022 Exclusive Molecular Images – More Actors, Latest Snapshots 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote Rebecca Boll Research Scientist, European XFEL, Hamburg, Germany X-ray induced Coulomb explosion imaging of complex molecules Abstract: Recording images of individual molecules with ultrashort “exposure times” has been a long-standing dream in molecular physics, chemistry, and biology, because this would allow one to follow the motion of atoms on their inherent timescale. While X-ray and electron diffraction have been successfully used for larger molecules, both are very challenging to apply to small gas-phase molecules.We could recently demonstrate that snapshot images of the complete structure of a molecule with eleven atoms, including all hydrogens, can be recorded by Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) using intense, femtosecond soft X-ray pulses [Nature Physics 18, 423 (2022)]. While it was possible to record up to six-fold ion coincidences in the experiment, even three-fold ion coincidences can be sufficient to image the full structure of a molecule. The X-ray intensity is high enough to produce extreme charge states (e.g. up to 42+ in xenon atoms), and to Coulomb-explode molecules into individual atoms very quickly, such that the initial molecular structure is well preserved in the recorded momenta of all ions. The intriguingly clear momentum images allow us to identify each atom’s position in the molecule unambiguously.The sensitivity of CEI to the molecular structure at the instant of ionization allows studying processes such as molecular charge-up, the influence of transient molecular resonances, intramolecular charge rearrangement and fragmentation dynamics. The femtosecond pulse duration opens the door to monitoring the temporal evolution of the molecular structure. Furthermore, combining CEI with coincident electron detection provides access to molecular-frame photoelectron diffraction – a powerful tool for accessing molecular dynamics. Bio: Rebecca Boll is a scientist at the Small Quantum Systems scientific instrument at the European XFEL in Germany since 2017. Her research focuses on ultrafast molecular dynamics and non-linear light/matter interaction in the gas phase, studied with ultrashort and intense X-ray pulses at free-electron lasers. Her particular emphasis lies on (time-resolved) ion momentum spectroscopy using reaction microscopes/COLTRIMS, and velocity-map imaging with time-stamping cameras.She received the degree of Dr.rer.nat. in physics from Heidelberg University in 2014, under supervision of Prof. Joachim Ullrich and Prof. Daniel Rolles, following a Diplom in physics in 2011, and was a post-doctoral researcher at DESY from 2014 to 2017.In 2020, she received the FELs of Europe award on FEL science and applications, and has been designated an 'Emerging Leader' in the field of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics by the Journal of Physics B in 2021. . Invited Yonghao Mi JASLAB, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada A new pathway of H3+ formation Abstract: We propose and experimentally demonstrate that the trihydrogen cation (H3+) can be produced via single photoionization of the molecular hydrogen dimer (H2-H2). Using near-infrared, femtosecond laser pulses and coincidence momentum imaging, we find that the dominant channel after single ionization of the dimer is the ejection of a…
November 10th, 2022 How to access ALLS in the future 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Invited François Légaré Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre (EMT) - ALLS Scientific Director, Varennes, Quebéc, Canada A new access policy for ALLS to build a diverse user community Abstract: ALLS has recently been awarded support by the Canada Foundation for Innovation – Major Science Initiatives program. This support allows us to increase the size of the technical team and to significantly reduce the user access fees of 75% of the beamtime in the near future. This beamtime will be allocated to academic and government researchers, which are determined in an external peer-review process. I will discuss details about the changes and chances that are ahead of us. Bio: François Légaré (Fellow APS, Fellow OPTICA) has been trained as a chemist with a B.Sc. (1998), M.Sc. (2001), and Ph.D. (2004) from the Université de Sherbrooke. During his Ph.D. under the co-supervision of Profs. André D. Bandrauk and Paul B. Corkum, he became an experimentalist with a focus on ultrafast molecular imaging. After a postdoc at Harvard University, he joined INRS-EMT as an assistant professor (2006). He was promoted associate professor in 2010 and full professor in 2013. In 2013, he became the director of the Advanced Laser Light Source. Since the beginning of his career, he has co-authored >180 peer-reviewed publications. More important, he had the opportunity to contribute to the supervision and training of 50 internships, 17 M.Sc and 22 Ph.D. students, and 23 postdoctoral fellows. . Invited Chandra Breanne Curry SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory - LaserNetUS Coordinator, Menlo Park, California, USA LaserNetUS: A network of high-power laser facilities across North America Abstract: LaserNetUS – a network of 10 high-power laser facilities across North America including the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) at INRS – was established by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2018. LaserNetUS aims to advance the frontiers of ultra‐intense laser‐science as well as their multi- and interdisciplinary applications in various sectors including high energy density, materials, and biomedical science. The mission of LaserNetUS is to advance the frontiers of laser‐science research, provide students and scientists with broad access to unique facilities and enabling technologies, and to foster collaboration among researchers around the world. This talk will provide an overview of the network and how experimental time is awarded through LaserNetUS. Bio: Chandra Breanne Curry was appointed as the LaserNetUS Coordinator by the U.S. Department of Energy in November 2021. She is based at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where she is also a Project Scientist with the Matter in Extreme Conditions Upgrade Project. She is concluding her PhD in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta and the High Energy Density Science Division at SLAC on petawatt laser-driven ion acceleration. . Invited Scott Feister California State University Channel Islands - LaserNetUS Review Panel, Venture Country, California, USA Proposal Writing and Review Process…
September 8th Good vibrations & excitations: High harmonics andmolecular structures from musical perspective. 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote Michael Spanner Theory and Computation Group, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada High-Harmonic Generation is the Sound of the 80's Abstract: High-harmonic generations (HHG) is a highly nonlinear optical process where a wide plateau of optical harmonics are generated when intense laser fields interact with atoms, molecules, and solids. The Yamaha DX7 was a revolutionary electronic music synthesizer released in 1983 that quickly dominated the 80s pop music sound. This talk explores the overlap between the strong-field recollision physics leading to HHG and electronic music synthesis as implemented in the DX7 Bio: Michael Spanner received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Waterloo. Following a postdoc at the University of Toronto, he is now a Research Officer at the National Research Council, in Ottawa, Canada. He has worked in the areas of strong-field and attosecond science, ionization dynamics, and laser-control of atoms and molecules. . Invited Timothy Cernak University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Turning Molecules into Music: Chemical Information Transfer via Sonification Abstract: The information encoded in molecular structures tells us about their bond and atom arrangements, and from this can be inferred additional information about molecular properties such as molecular weight or solubility in water and lipids. Molecules can be drawn as line drawings, but are typically handled in the computer as strings, called SMILES, or matrix arrays of fingerprints. These information media are useful but inherently low dimensional and difficult to interact with and interpret. Music, meanwhile is highly dimensional, easily interpretable to listeners with no background in chemistry, and can be interacted with in many ways. For this reason, encoding molecules as music holds promise as a means to create new drugs, materials, or agrochemicals. We will discuss sonification algorithms developed as a first test of molecule to music information transfer and share early applications in the space Bio: Tim Cernak was born in Montreal, Canada in 1980. He obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry from University of British Columbia Okanagan and there studied the aroma profile of Chardonnay wines. Following PhD training in total synthesis with Prof. Jim Gleason at McGill University, Tim was a FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellow with Tristan Lambert at Columbia University. In 2009, Tim joined the Medicinal Chemistry team at Merck Sharp & Dohme in Rahway, New Jersey. There he developed technologies for miniaturized synthesis and late-stage functionalization. In 2013, Tim moved to Merck’s Boston site. In 2018, Dr. Cernak joined the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as an Assistant Professor. The Cernak Lab is exploring an interface of chemical synthesis and data science. Tim is a co-Founder of Entos, Inc
Seminar July 7th Caution - Lasers for bio-medical applications 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote Danielle Tokarz Saint Mary’s University, Hallifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Polarization-resolved Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy for Biomedical Applications Abstract: Information regarding the structure and function of living tissues and cells is instrumental to the advancement of biochemistry and biophysics. Nonlinear optical microscopy, in particular, second harmonic generation (SHG), can provide such information. For instance, SHG microscopy can be used to visualize several biological tissues while polarization-sensitive SHG imaging can be used to extract several parameters related to the ultrastructure of biological tissues. In this talk, I will discuss the use of polarization-resolved SHG microscopy to investigate the ultrastructure of collagen in diseased tissues as well as model systems to understand collagen disorganization in these tissues. I will also discuss the use of polarization-resolved SHG microscopy to investigate other biological tissues including the degradation of otoconia, inner ear calcite crystals which act as linear acceleration sensors. Bio: Danielle Tokarz obtained her H.B.Sc. degree in 2008 and Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of Toronto where she studied the nonlinear optical properties of conjugated molecules. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2015 at the University Health Network, and undertook an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, using nonlinear optical microscopy for biomedical applications. In 2017, Danielle started as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Saint Mary's University. Her current research program is geared towards characterizing ultrastructural alterations during natural as well as artificial synthesis and degradation reactions in carbohydrate- and protein-dense model systems via development of nonlinear optical microscopy imaging analysis techniques . Invited Simon Vallières Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre (EMT), Varennes, Quebéc, Canada Tight Focusing in Air of a mJ-class Femtosecond Laser: A Radiation Safety Issue Abstract: Ultrashort electron beams offer a great potential for applications in areas ranging from material science to radiobiological studies. We present a very simple method to generate short bunch duration, MeV-ranged electron beams in ambient air through the tight focusing of a mJ-class femtosecond IR laser. Resulting from the copious amounts of electrons generated, the highest measured dose rate of 9 Gy/min at one meter from the source exceeds the annual public dose limit in less than one second of irradiation time, and therefore warrants the implementation of radiation protection. Laser-plasma interaction simulations confirm the acceleration mechanism and show theoretical agreement with the measured electron energy. Furthermore, we discuss the scalability of the method with the continuing development of mJ-class high average power lasers, moreover providing a promising approach for FLASH radiation therapy. Bio: Simon Vallières is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and at INRS-EMT in Québec, under the supervision of Prof. Steve MacLean. Simon's expertise is at the junction of radiation physics and high-intensity laser-matter interactions. Simon obtained a BEng in Engineering Physics at Polytechnique Montreal (2014), then pursued an MSc degree in Medical Physics at McGill University…
Seminar May 12th Light, heat, and polarization in quantum materials 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote Ziliang Ye Physics at Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada Ultrafast photovoltaic effect induced by spontaneous polarization in Rhombohedral MoS2 Abstract: Conventional photovoltaic effects result from the drift of optically excited carriers under a built-in electric field, which is induced either by inhomogeneous doping or by interfacing materials of different work functions. On the other hand, a PV effect can also arise in a homogenous single crystalline material with low symmetry in a phenomenon so called bulk photovoltaic effect. Recently we observed a bulk photovoltaic effect in a semiconducting MoS2 with rhombohedral stacking. The effect is enabled by an out-of-plane spontaneous polarization emerging from the unusual stacking order. Compared with conventional PV effects, the 3R MoS2 based device has a similar quantum efficiency with an ultrafast speed and potentially a programmable polarity. Such rhombohedral stacked transition metal dichalcogenides provide a new platform for studying BPV and ferroelectricity at the atomically thin limit. Bio: Ziliang Ye is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Quantum Matter Institute in the University of British Columbia, where he also holds the Tier II Canada Research Chair. Ziliang’s expertise is in probing two-dimensional materials at ultrafast time scale with subdiffrational length scale using various optical spectroscopy techniques. Ziliang obtained his PhD at the University of California Berkeley in 2013 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia and Stanford universities with Tony Heinz before joining the faculty of UBC in 2018. Throughout his career, Ziliang has made several important contributions to the field of quantum materials and nanophotonics and has thus been awarded multiple prizes including MRS gold medalist and the first Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute Thesis Prize Award. . Invited Mengxing (Ketty) Na Stuart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada Establishing non-thermal regimes in pump-probe electron-relaxation dynamics Abstract: Time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) accesses the electronic structure of solids under optical excitation, and is a powerful technique for studying the coupling between electrons and collective modes. Using TR-ARPES, it has been recently demonstrated that electron-phonon coupling can be extracted from the non-thermal occupation of electrons arising from photoexcitation and subsequent phonon scattering. It is therefore desirable to make a precise estimation of the non-thermal window within which such features arise, and effective temperature models may not be applied. We show that Boltzmann rate equations can be used to calculate the time-dependent electronic occupation function, and reproduce experimental features given by non-thermal electron occupation. Using this model, we define a quantitative measure of non-thermal electron occupation and use it to define distinct phases of electron relaxation in the fluence-delay phase space. More generally, this approach can be used to inform the non-thermal-to-thermal crossover in pump-probe experiments. Bio: : MengXing Na is a PhD student and QuEST fellow at the Stuart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute at UBC under the joint supervision of Andrea Damascelli and…
Seminar : April 14th Inspiration, Explanation and sometimes last Hope – Theory 10:30 Vancouver - 11:30 Edmonton - 12:30 Winnipeg - 13:30 Montreal - 14:30 Halifax Keynote André D. Bandrauk Département de Chimie, Faculté de Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke (Québec), Canada Circularly Polarized Molecular High Order Harmonics - Generation and Applications in Attosecond Science Abstract: MHOHG, Molecular high order harmonic generation is a highly nonlinear nonperturbative response of molecules to ultrashort (fs=10-15 s) intense (I>1014 W/cm2) laser pulses leading to multiphoton ionisation and laser induced electron recollisions in linear polarisation. MHOHG is suppressed with intense single circularly polarized pulses but has been shown in 1995 to be generated with co- or counter-rotating pairs of bichromatic (ω1/ω2=n1/n2) circularly polarised pulses [1-2] leading to the generation of circularly polarised attosecond (10-18 s) pulses [3], the time scale of electron motion in atoms and molecules. Parallel computer simulations of electron TDSE,s, Time Dependent Schrödinger Equations coupled with photon Maxwell,s equations show that molecules are the ideal systems for circular polarised harmonic and attosecond pulse generation due to lower rotational symmetries than atoms. The TDSE simulations confirm the electron-parent ion recollision mechanism in the presence of bichromatic circular pulses and maximum circular polarised MHOHG efficiency is obtained when the net time dependent electric field of the combined pulses is compatible with molecular symmetry. The resulting circularly polarised attosecond pulses are shown to generate in molecules coherent attosecond quantum electron currents from which one can create intense attosecond magnetic field pulses for studying ultrafast magneto-optics [4] and dynamical symmetry in molecules [5]. [1] T Zuo, A D Bandrauk, J Nonlinear Opt Phys Mater 04, 533 (1995) [2] S Long, W Becker, J K McIver, Phys Rev A 52, 2262 (1995) [3] K J Yuan, A D Bandrauk, Phys Rev Lett 110, 023003 (2013) [4] A D Bandrauk, J Guo, K J Yuan, J Opt 19, 124016 (2017) [5] K J Yuan, A D Bandrauk, Phys Rev A 97, 023408 (2018) Bio: B.Sc. (Hon. Chem.) from l'Université de Montréal, M.Sc. in theoretical chemistry from M.I.T. and Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada), NATO Fellow at Oxford University's Mathematical Institute (1968-70), assistant at the Technische Hochschule Munchen (1970) before being appointed as an assistant professor of theoretical chemistry at l'Université de Sherbrooke. He has been an invited researcher and lecturer at prestigious institutions: International Collaborator, Los Alamos Natl. Lab., USA (1984); Senior Visiting Scientist, NRC-Ottawa (1985); Foreign Lecturer, Institute of Chem. Phys., Moscow, USSR (1985); C.A. McDowell Lecturer, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (1990); Foreign Professor, Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki, Japan (1992); Japan Society for Promotion of Science Lecturer, (Tohoku Univ.-1997); Visiting Professor, Université de Paris Sud (Orsay), (1998); Invited speaker, Harvard University (2008, 2005, 2002, 1995, 1993), M.I.T. (2000, 2018). In 1982, awarded a Killam Research Fellowship by the Canada Council, was elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada in 1992. In 1989 received the Herzberg prize from the Canadian Spectroscopy Society, awarded the prestigious John Polanyi (Nobel Prize 1986) Awardby the Chemical Society of Canada in 2001, became director of…