Panels
Physics Education & Science Communication
This panel brings together educators, researchers, and science communicators to discuss how physics can be made more accessible, engaging, and inclusive. Panelists will share insights on effective teaching practices, outreach strategies, and the importance of clear communication.
Panelists:
Fiona Thompson (UW)
Meghan Costello (UNBC)
Sarah Johnson (SFU)
Graduate Studies & Careers
Join physicists from academia and industry as they share their experiences navigating graduate school and diverse career paths. Panelists will discuss applying to programs, finding research opportunities, balancing work and life, and building transferable skills that extend beyond academia. This session offers practical advice and candid insights for students planning their next steps in physics.
Panelists:
Nancy Forde (SFU)
Jennifer Ogilvie (SFU)
Ella Meyer (UBC/QAI)
Thinking Beyond Resiliency: Imposter syndrome and EDI Interactive Session
Physics is viewed as a very data-driven, binary, right-or-wrong field (probably because of the math involved). We often forget about the humans themselves behind the physics and their uniqueness that makes up the physicist. Imposter syndrome is a common experience among physicists at all stages of their careers, manifesting in ways such as self-doubt, a fear of being “found out”, or the feeling of underserved success. This has disproportionately impacted populations that have been historically denied access to education and that have, in physics, faced systemic barriers along axes of privilege and power. This interactive panel aims to explore experiences around imposter syndrome, EDI, and the sense of belonging, as well as how we can be inspired through these experiences to find ways to thrive in physics beyond building resiliency to the barriers in the field.
Panellists:
Ingrid Stairs (UBC)
Bianca Carminada (UBC)
Taylor Starkman (UBC)
Adele Ruosi (UBC)
Workshops
Search for the Stars: Exploring Quantum Algorithms with Games
Hosted by IQC Scientific Outreach Officer, Fiona Thompson
“Quantum computing allows us to process information in ways beyond what’s possible with today’s) computers. By encoding bits into objects like electrons and photons that obey the rules of quantum physics, we can manipulate information to reach solutions in novel ways. In this workshop, we’ll explore what makes quantum bits different than classical bits and the toolbox to manipulate them. We’ll discover some algorithms that can be run more efficiently on a quantum device, including unsorted search. We will finally introduce a hands-on game to learn how quantum advantages may start small but become incredibly powerful as the system size increases.”
One Physicist’s Journey into Quantum Computing
Hosted by D-Wave, Ashley Nicole Warner
Quantum computing re-entered the public spotlight in 2025, capturing widespread media attention and generating excitement across cutting edge research, industry, and policy. While this surge of visibility is relatively new, the field itself is not; D-Wave has been advancing quantum computing technologies for over 25 years, specializing in quantum annealing.
Quantum annealers are skilled at solving optimization problems by leveraging an adiabatic quantum process to efficiently search for the global minimum of an objective function. By mapping real-world challenges onto a mathematical framework, quantum annealing enables solutions to problems that are inefficient or even infeasible for classical methods to solve. We are solving problems in domains such as agriculture, wireless communications, scientific modelling and discovery, and more.
This talk presents one physicist’s journey into the world of quantum computing, describes the foundational premise of quantum annealing, then explores the underlying physics and highlights what makes D-Wave unique.