Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara

Scientific American has called Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara, currently a long-term researcher at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, “one of the world’s most promising young physicists.”

Dr. Markopoulou-Kalamara received her PhD from Imperial College London in 1998 and has held various postdoctoral positions at the Albert Einstein Institute, Imperial College London and Penn State University. She also recently shared First Prize in the Young Researchers competition at het Ultimate Reality Symposium in Princeton, New Jersey.

Her research interests include quantum gravity, quantum cosmology, discrete structure of space, causality, string theory, topological quantum field theory, quantum computing, category theory and logic.

Originally from Athens, Greece, Markopoulou-Kalamara’s love affair with physics began during her undergrad years in London. According to Scientific American, if her research proves correct, “…the causal spin networks theory that she’s helped to develop would mean that the universe functions like a giant quantum computer,” thus forever changing “…the way we think about the structure of space.”