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Mike Lazaridis is the man behind the top-selling BlackBerry, the smartphone with emailing capabilities that is so addictive it has been dubbed the 鈥淐rackBerry鈥�. Rather than sitting back and counting the dollars, Lazaridis has invested upwards of CAN$150 million into cutting-edge quantum physics research. The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, and the nearby Institute for Quantum Computing were both founded thanks to his largesse. He tells Paul Marks what drew him to the strange world of quantum entanglement, and why quantum physics is essential to the future of consumer electronics

It is unusual for a technology executive to be interested in advanced quantum effects. What鈥檚 the story?

It goes way back. The idea of entanglement grabbed me in my second year of university because it was so nonsensical. You couldn鈥檛 believe what the mathematics was telling you because it made no sense physically. What fascinated me was how nature seems to confirm mathematics even to the point where it doesn鈥檛 seem real.

When did you first get interested in science?

I won a science award at the age of 12 for reading all the science books in my local library. I was fascinated by all of it, particularly physics and electronics. One book that really caught my attention was by Alfred Morgan, which showed me how to make amplifiers and generators and things like that. I got a few electric shocks making them.

The shocks didn鈥檛 discourage you?

You get desensitised to them after a while. I found getting stuff to work was just so cool. I loved problem-solving, and electronics became almost instinctive to me; I felt a tangible connection with how the electrons flowed. To me it wasn鈥檛 an intellectual exercise. I could almost feel my way through circuit designs. I always wanted to be an electronics engineer, but what really inspired me was the fact that you could use mathematics to predict things 鈥� and some pretty amazing things, such as the way predicted electromagnetic waves to give us radio.

鈥淚 loved problem-solving, and electronics became almost instinctive鈥�

What turned you into an entrepreneur?

When I was a student at the in Ontario I got to work at a computer company called , researching automatic error detection and correction in computer memory. This made me realise that I could get paid to improve other research teams鈥� operating systems, or build computer circuits for them. When I realised I could be self-employed, I left university a month before I was due to finish my degree and founded a start-up company, (RIM).

What was your first product?

It was a display system that used software to create a video signal that could be used with any computer monitor. This was in 1984, when there were no colour laser printers and to typeset display signs was really expensive. Stores would put our signs in their windows to advertise things, or inside the store to attract people to special deals. It was so popular that I even demonstrated it on the television news. That is really what got us started.

How did you get from there to cellphone technology?

Our software skills got noticed on a display system we built for General Motors, and that led to us working for a cellphone operator called in Canada. We basically wrote the software that became the foundation for Cantel鈥檚 wireless data network. From that we went on to build better, smaller data radios 鈥� effectively what digital cellphones are.

What inspired the BlackBerry?

My high-school electronics teacher, a ham radio operator, told me not to get too obsessed by computers because what was really going to make a big difference to the world, in his view, was a mixture of wireless and computer technology. I think he was right. So at RIM we experimented with wireless email technology by building prototype cellphones with email gateways. As unwieldy as the initial prototypes were, they allowed our guys to work from home. The challenge was to make them ever more practical to use.

I guess with more than 14 million subscribers you鈥檝e done that. To what do you attribute the BlackBerry鈥檚 success?

Its user interface is the key. It is so compact in the way it gets information to you. When you pull it out of the holster, it is already right in the middle of the message: there鈥檚 a dividing line with the subject above it, who it鈥檚 from and as much of the message body as possible. So you can decide right away whether you want to read more or put it away. Pulling it out, looking at it and putting it away becomes almost a reflex. People get into the habit of looking at it all the time.

What鈥檚 next: a quantum BlackBerry?

Looking at it holistically, we already have one. Like all electronics companies, RIM has greatly benefited from the quantum physics and relativity research that happened a century and more ago. Without quantum mechanics we鈥檇 have no semiconductor microchips, and without Maxwell鈥檚 equations we鈥檇 have no radio-frequency technology to connect cellphone to cellphone.

Your research spending suggests you think there is a pressing need for still more advanced quantum consumer technology. How so?

The economics of Moore鈥檚 law has fuelled the information age for the past 50 years: halve the size of a chip, and the amount of stuff you can put on it quadruples. The problem is that a plot of Moore鈥檚 law intersects the size of an atom within the next 15 years. After that we won鈥檛 be able to make transistors any smaller. We will have to start relying on quantum mechanics and the strange interactions that take place when particles are really close to each other.

What quantum research are you funding?

There are two thrusts. The in Waterloo, which I founded with CAN$100 million, is studying pure quantum theory, focusing on quantum gravity, string theory and the foundations of quantum mechanics. Then there鈥檚 the at the University of Waterloo, with CAN$50 million, which is building a state-of-the-art facility where we can test different methods of quantum computing and entanglement. We鈥檒l also be testing more efficient methods of entanglement by setting up a communication link between the IQC and the Perimeter Institute for 鈥渇ree air鈥� experiments over the 4 kilometres between the sites. There鈥檚 an entangled pair generator on top of the Waterloo library, right in the centre of campus. It fires out of two telescopes, one aimed at the IQC and one at the Perimeter Institute.

When do you expect this research to have an impact?

It could be 50 years, it could be 100, it could be longer. But it will have an impact, there is no doubt. Anyone who has spent time researching science history cannot fail to realise the impact of such investments and the amazing discoveries that will result from them. That is the prize, the thing that keeps us going 鈥� the part that is just so tantalising.

Quantum World 鈥� Learn more about a weird world in our comprehensive special report.