Dr. Steven Rayan DPhil (Oxford)

I am a Professor and NSERC, NFRF, and CFI-supported researcher in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Saskatchewan, which is located on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis. I serve as the Deputy Head of the Department. I am a faculty member of both the College of Arts and Science and the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. I sereve as the Lead for the University's Signature Area of Research in Quantum Innovation and as the Director of the Centre for Quantum Topology and Its Applications (quanTA).  I am also the University's Director of Interdisciplinary Programming, a position housed in the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

I am a pure mathematician influenced in large part by physics and quantum science. My current research has two outwardly separate but deeply intertwined themes:

• the algebraic geometry, topology, and representation theory of moduli spaces arising from theoretical physics
  
• novel approaches to quantum computation, quantum matter, and quantum sensing at both a foundational and applied level
  

Within the Quantum Innovation Signature Area, I also serve as the Co-Lead for the Quantum Computing theme.

You can read an overview of my research or you can view my papers directly. If you want to learn about some of my research and also see cartoons of hedgehogs at the same time, please have a look at Higgs Bundles without Geometry, a pamphlet that I wrote with Laura Schaposnik for the Oberwolfach Snapshots of Modern Mathematics series, which is "designed to promote the understanding and appreciation of modern mathematics and mathematical research in the interested public world-wide." You can also check out my TED^x talk about the mathematics and art behind quantum magic.

I was invited by the Canadian Science Policy Centre to write about grand challenges around quantum innovation in the current decade. You can read my article on page 39 of the 2020 edition of the Canadian Science Policy Magazine.

I am also an editor of the journal Research in the Mathematical Sciences, an affiliate faculty member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a member of the NSF GEAR Network and Geometry Labs United.