Carlos Silva is a full professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Montreal. He is an expert in the field of ultrafast and nonlinear spectroscopy of advanced materials. Renowned worldwide, he has also become an undisputed reference in quantum physics. He has been serving as the director of the Courtois Institute since July 1, 2023.

With a dual bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry, as well as a Ph.D. in chemical physics, Carlos Silva has an extensive track record. Throughout his career, he has been affiliated with numerous academic institutions. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow and subsequently as EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and as a visiting professor at Imperial College London, the Italian Institute of Technology, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. From 2005 to 2018, he was a professor in the Department of Physics at UdeM, where he obtained a Canada Research Chair in Organic Semiconductor Materials and established an ultrafast laser spectroscopy laboratory. Since 2017, he held the position of professor of chemistry, physics and materials science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was also co-director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE), a research center that brings together researchers from the departments of chemistry, physics, materials, mathematics, and electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineering.

He has an ambitious vision for the Courtois Institute, where he aims to establish a culture of collaborative and multidisciplinary interaction to ensure impactful scientific output. He intends to leverage the expertise of the departments of physics, chemistry, and computer science to generate new impactful knowledge at the interface between materials sciences and artificial intelligence. He endeavours to establish the Institute as an internationally recognized environment conducive to world-leading research in fields that intersect novel materials, quantum physics, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

As the director of the Courtois Institute, he plans to establish partnerships with various Canadian and international institutions while promoting multidisciplinary research. “I consider the Courtois Institute to be a transformative organization that will elevate us to the top of the Canadian research community. The objective is to achieve ambitious yet credible growth to reach the excellence goals we have set for ourselves,” he says.

Within the Institute, Carlos Silva will continue his research on the optical properties of materials used in quantum technologies, such as photonics.