Oral History: Jacques Vanier (2018)

Jacques Vanier completed his undergraduate studies in physics at the University of Montreal before moving to McGill University to undertake his graduate studies. During his career he has worked in industry (Varian, Hewlett-Packard), taught physics, carried out research at Laval University, Québec, National Research Council, Ottawa, University of Paris, Orsay, France, and the Instituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris, Torino Italy. His research work was oriented towards the understanding and the application of quantum electronics phenomena. He has been a consultant for several companies engaged in the development of atomic clocks. Jacques has also been very active on the academic circuit, giving lectures and conferences at numerous Universities, National Institutes and Summer Schools around the world. He has written more than 120 publications and is the author of review articles and books on masers, lasers and atomic clocks. His two-volume-book, The Quantum Physics of Atomic Frequency Standards (1989), written with C. Audoin, is recognized as a main reference in the field. Recently he has written, with Cipriana Tomescu a third volume of that book, with the subtitle; “Recent developments” (2016). He is also the author of "The Universe, a challenge to the mind" published by Imperial College Press/World Scientific (2010). Jacques is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He has been the fortunate recipient of several awards for his contributions to the field of measurement science: IEEE Rabi award (1994), Distinguished Precision and Time and Time Interval (PTTI) award (1998), IEEE Instrumentation and Measurements Society award (1999), Queen Elisabeth Jubilee medal 2012, Médaille de l’Assemblée Nationale du Québec (2018). He is currently Adjunct Professor in the Physics Department, University of Montreal.