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Steve MacLean, the head of Canada’s space agency, is stepping down to work on a quantum physics venture spearheaded by Research In Motion Ltd. co-founder Mike Lazaridis.

The Canadian Space Agency confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Mr. MacLean, who has been president since September 2008, plans to leave on Feb. 1 and join Mr. Lazaridis in leading a “team pursuing breakthrough scientific research and development in the highly specialized field of quantum physics.”

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Sources told the Canadian Press Mr. MacLean would be working for the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., which Mr. Lazaridis founded in 1999.

The institute launched publicly in 2000 with $100-million in backing from Mr. Lazaridis and further $10-million investments from RIM co-founder Jim Balsilie and Doug Fregin, another RIM executive.

In 2008 Stephen Hawking joined the institute as a research chair and in 2010 he spent six weeks there on a research visit that included a televised lecture.

In September 2012, Mr. Lazaridis, who resigned as co-chairman last January but remains on RIM’s board of directors, made another big bet on quantum physics research in the region.

He invested $100-million in the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre with a view to creating a research hub that could duplicate the success of AT&T Inc.’s Bell Labs that paved the way for the innovation and success of Silicon Valley in the 1960s.

Mr. MacLean was selected as one of the first six Canadian astronauts in 1983 and completed two space missions.

With files from the Canadian Press