Rate My Professor Achim Kempf

Achim Kempf is Professor and Dieter Schwarz Chair in the Physics of Information and AI in the Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics, at the University of Waterloo, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He leads the Physics of Information and AI Lab and holds associate memberships in the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in addition to being a founding member of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, a member of the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute, the Mathematics of Data Science and Machine Learning Research Group, and the Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute. Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Kempf pursued undergraduate studies at the Universities of Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, and Munich, supported by scholarships from the Land Baden-Württemberg (LGFG) and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. He obtained his PhD from the University of Munich. Following his doctorate, he held postdoctoral positions at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge, where he served as a stipendiary College Research Fellow, and at the Institute for Fundamental Theory at the University of Florida. Kempf has been a faculty member at the University of Waterloo since 2001.

Previously, Kempf held the Canada Research Chair in the Physics of Information from 2004 to 2014 and the University Research Chair from 2014 to 2021. His research interests include quantum gravity, cosmology, relativistic quantum information, Shannon sampling theory and data compression, and mathematical biology. Kempf has made significant contributions to the field, including developing a new mathematical model to study the expansion rate of the universe during the Big Bang and, more recently, leading a team that discovered the first method for safely backing up quantum information via encrypted cloning of unknown quantum states, published in Physical Review Letters in 2026. In leadership capacities, he chaired the International Society for Relativistic Quantum Information from 2014 to 2018, served on the Editorial Board of Proceedings of the Royal Society A from 2017 to 2023, was a member of the Advisory Board of the Banff International Research Station from 2021 to 2022, and currently serves as a Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021) and the Senate (since 2020) at the University of Waterloo. He teaches advanced courses such as General Relativity for Cosmology and Quantum Field Theory for Cosmology.