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Assistant Director, Technical Facilities

Department:

Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC)

Effective Date: December 2010
Grade: USG 12 Reports to: Director, Strategy & Operations

General Accountability

The Assistant Director, Technical Facilities is accountable to Director, Strategy and Operations, of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), who in turn reports to the Executive Director of IQC. The Assistant Director, Technical Facilities is responsible for the management and infrastructure support of the technical facilities of IQC, training of lab technologists, post-doctoral-fellows and graduate students in the use of specialized equipment, and maintenance and operation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) facilities. The Assistant Director, Technical Facilities will also conduct research on their own and with other researchers at the Institute. In total, the Assistant Director, Technical Facilities has responsibility and oversight of approximately $25M in research infrastructure capital, with an additional ~$1M (annual) authority over a research upkeep and upgrade budget.

Nature and Scope

Highlights

The unique knowledge that the incumbent possesses with regard to specialized maintenance, testing and repair of NMR and ESR equipment saves the institute approximately $100,000 annually in service cost, in addition to keeping the facilities operation running smoothly. The incumbent also keeps his knowledge current by attending hands-on courses and workshops, regular meetings with field engineers and independent research.

Strategic Context

The mission of the Institute for Quantum Computing is to advance fundamental experimental and theoretical knowledge in relevant areas of Engineering, Mathematics and Science to enhance developments in the field of Quantum Computation and Information Processing. To achieve this mission, the Institute brings together the best researchers and students from around the world in Computing, Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

Internal Relationships:

External Relationships:

Other positions which report directly to the same supervisor:

Positions that report directly to the incumbent:

 

Statistical Data

Currently, there are 18 full time faculty from three UW faculties (Mathematics, Engineering and Science) and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics who work collaboratively with the Director to advance the goals of the Institute.  Plans are to increase the number of faculty to 30 full time positions within the next five years. As well, the Institute currently has 70 graduate students and 25 postdoctoral fellows registered in other faculties but studying within the Institute with an intention to increase to 125 and 50 respectively. 

IQC faculty are engaged in extensive research, with over 100 active grants and contracts.  Research funds awarded during the past fiscal year amounted to over $18 Million. In addition to this, IQC was recently awarded $50 Million by Industry Canada. Within 5 years IQC will double its total researchers to a total of more than 200 people.

Specific Accountabilities

Oversight of the infrastructure of technical laboratories at IQC

Maintain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) facilities at IQC

The qualified individual manages, operates, maintains and trains users of a high-field 700 MHz and medium-field solid-state NMR facility ($5M value) in the Institute for Quantum Computing. This facility is situated in the RAC1, RAC2 and Chemistry-2 Buildings and encompasses researchers from the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Mathematics. Job duties consist of testing, diagnosis and regular maintenance of the equipment and participation in research. Familiarity with Bruker spectrometers, Linux systems and Cryoprobe™ are essential.

In addition to performing the specialized maintenance, troubleshooting and repair required by this facility, this individual designs, develops and implements new NMR experiments and protocols for quantum computing, and assists graduate students, post-doctoral-fellows and visiting scientists to discover new methods in support of their research programs, as well as, oversight, design and development of construction of customized or new equipment. The multidisciplinary nature of this facility requires the candidate to be able to train and assist scientists from a broad scientific background including mathematicians, physicists and chemists.

Researcher and technical supervisor of the laboratories for David Cory

Beyond detailed management of infrastructure it is expected that he:

The incumbent will handle inquiries that are non-routine in nature and require independent judgment, technical expertise and quick decision-making.

Working Conditions