quantum computing
pontiff | October 5, 2009Postdocs at Caltech's IQI. Now in the new Annenberg Center (named, of course, after Caltech's Ann of the Steele tower :) ):
INSTITUTE FOR QUANTUM INFORMATION
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Postdoctoral Research Positions
The Institute for Quantum Information at the California Institute of Technology will have postdoctoral scholar positions available beginning in September 2010. Researchers interested in all aspects of quantum information science are invited to apply. The appointment is contingent upon completion of a Ph.D.
Please apply on-line at http://www.iqi.caltech.edu/…
pontiff | September 28, 2009Well it seems that it is that time of year again when grad students and postdocs begin to think about job applications. Last year I had the great pleasure of going through the process (yet one more time!) so yes, I feel your pain. But, at least on the postdoc side of equation for quantum computing, things don't look as bad to me as I've seen in the past. I've already posted about Microsoft Station Q postdocs and the Center for Quantum Information and Control postdocs. Here are a few more to add to the mix.
First up is some loon from the University of Washington:
The quantum computing…
pontiff | September 24, 2009Note the new location (updated 9/28/09)
The Optimizer is coming to town, which is always fun:
TIME: 1:30-2:30 pm, Tuesday, September 29, 2009
PLACE: CSE 305
SPEAKER: Scott Aaronson (MIT)
TITLE: Quantum Money
ABSTRACT:
Ever since there's been money, there have been people trying to counterfeit it, and governments trying to stop them. In a remarkable 1969 manuscript, Stephen Wiesner raised the possibility of money whose authenticity would be guaranteed by the laws of quantum physics. However, Wiesner's money can only be verified by the bank that printed
it -- and the natural question of…
pontiff | September 22, 2009Hm, looks like D-wave has a new CEO. Not sure when this occurred (?), but a reader sends along an email with an announcement from a recruiting (?) firm:
Lonergan Partners is pleased to announce that Vern Brownell has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of D-Wave Systems....
Vern Brownell joins D-Wave from Egenera, were he held various executive roles including CEO. Egenera was founded by Mr. Brownell in 2000 based on his experiences as the Chief Technology Officer at Goldman Sachs, where he and his staff of 1,300 were responsible for worldwide technology infrastructure including…
pontiff | September 22, 2009Two conferences. Renato Renner sends along a note about QIP 2010. The paper submission deadline is one month away:
QIP 2010 will be held in Zurich, Switzerland, January 18-22.
The submission deadline for contributed talks is 22 October 2009.
For more information, please see http://www.qip2010.ethz.ch
We look forward to welcoming you to Zurich,
the organizers
Also a conference on superconducting qubits in San Diego:
Please note our conference coming next spring; Coherence in Superconducting Qubits, to be held April 25-28, 2010, in San Diego, CA.
The agenda and registration are described at…
pontiff | September 9, 2009Any quantum people in the area of Japan in early December might be interested in ICQIT 2009. Submission deadline fast approaching (Sep 30):
The International Conference on Quantum Information and Technology ICQIT2009 will be held at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan from 2nd to 5th December 2009. ICQIT2009 focuses on the following topics:
QKD and quantum networks,
Large Scale QIP and architecture design.
Quantum Information Theory
Quantum Algorithms
Measurement Based QIP
Optical QIP Implementations,
Solid State QIP implementations,
SQUID systems
ICQIT2009 is now open for…
pontiff | September 4, 2009Scott Aaronson, Leonid Grinberg, and Louis Wasserman's "Worldview Manager" is now live at http://projects.csail.mit.edu/worldview/home. It seems that I am not in much conflict over quantum computing
So, damnit, I may be wrong, but at least I'm consistent (the hobgoblin of a little mind, mind you.) Via @cgranade and @mattleifer.
pontiff | September 4, 2009Congrats to Andrew Houcke for being selected as one of MIT Technology Reviews 2009 Young Innovators under 35. Houcke has been one the leading experimentalists in superconducting qubits, in particular doing pioneering work in circuit quantum electrodynamics. News article from Princeton:
Andrew Houck, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and a past Princeton valedictorian, was named to Technology Review magazine's list of the top 35 young innovators for 2009.
Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young innovators whose inventions and research they find…
pontiff | September 2, 2009At least three postdoc positions at the University of New Mexico and the University of Arizona's "Center for Quantum Information and Control." Here is a pdf ad for the positions.
The Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC) is seeking to hire at least three postdoctoral fellows over the next year. CQuIC has research nodes at the University of New Mexico (UNM) under Professors Carlton Caves and Ivan Deutsch and at the College of Optical Sciences of the University of Arizona (UA) under Professor Poul Jessen.
Research at CQuIC is focused on quantum information, quantum control,…
pontiff | September 2, 2009Trip to Zurich for 8th Symposium on Topological Quantum Computing, Zurich 29th-31st August 2009.
Thursday 8/27 - 7:30am SEA to 3:30pm IAD, 6:00pm IAD to 8:00am ZRH. Attempt to upgrade first leg failed which is too bad as it was the international version of the 767-300 which has a pretty nice (by American carrier standards) business class. Both flights are completely full. Am I the only one who often goes to the self check kiosks by the gates and attempts to move my seat to one beside an empty seat? Sleep approximately 2 hours. Why does the lady behind me think that it is okay to start a…
pontiff | August 26, 2009I'm off to Zurich tomorrow for 8th Symposium on Topological Quantum Computing which I'm greatly looking forward to (this will be my first trip to Switzerland.) What I'm not looking forward to is the 15.5 hours it will take me to get from the Seattle airport to the Zurich airport! So, any recommendations for papers I should read, lectures I should listen to, or videos I should watch in order to keep from going insane on during the flight?
pontiff | August 21, 2009An interesting paper on the arXiv's today, arXiv:0908.2782, "Adiabatic quantum optimization fails for random instances of NP-complete problems" by Boris Altshuler, Hari Krovi, and Jeremie Roland. Trouble for D-wave?
Adiabatic quantum algorithms are a set of techniques for designing quantum algorithms based upon the adiabatic theorem in quantum physics. The basic idea is as follows: (1) take the problem you are trying to solve and convert it to a Hamiltonian whose ground state (you could use other energy eigenstates, but in general this is not done) is the solution to this problem, (2)…
pontiff | August 19, 2009Want a job hacking away at topological quantum computing (and more) by day and surfing (by morning?) on the beautiful Southern California coast near Santa Barbara? Okay, well maybe surfing isn't part of the job description, but Microsoft's Station Q at UCSB has postdocs available with a deadline of October 16, 2009:
Station Q will be recruiting postdoctoral researchers. We are primarily interested in applicants with a strong background in quantum Hall physics, topological insulators, quantum information in condensed matter, and/or numerical methods, but will consider excellent candidates…
pontiff | August 10, 2009March is ages away, but it is time to start planning for the APS March meeting, to be held in the beautiful rose city, Portland, Oregon (Note to skiers that Mt. Hood is just a short distance away :) ) Anyway an important part of the March meeting are invites sessions and the quantum computing/information/foundations topical group GQI is in charge of a few of these sessions. Want to nominate a session or invited speaker? Now's your chance. Here's the email that was sent out Friday:
Dear GQI members,
This is an email to solicit from you proposals for GQI sponsored invited sessions and…
pontiff | August 5, 2009Booz Allen Hamilton is looking for a science and technology consultant in quantum information sciences. Help be a part of quantum revolution! Description and contact info below the fold.
Key Role/Position Description:
Serve as a strategic consultant to government science and technology clients. Contribute to advancing the state-of the-art in the quantum sciences by combining strategic planning and technical analysis. Assist clients in researching and formulating ideas for new research programs. Provide expertise in assessing research proposals for technical merit and proposal objectives.…
pontiff | July 30, 2009Okay this one from ScienceDaily made my day. No it made my week. The title is "Police Woman Fights Quantum Hacking And Cracking." Intriguing, no? Who is this mysterious police woman in quantum computing? I don't know many police offers involved in quantum computing, but yeah, maybe there is one who is doing cool quantum computing research ("cracking?" and "hacking?" btw.)
I open up the article and who is the police woman? It's Julia Kempe! Julia was a graduate student at Berkeley during the time I was there, a close collaborator of mine, and well, last time I checked, Julia described…
pontiff | July 29, 2009Rod Van Meter is in search of some summer reading:
I'm feeling the need to recharge my store of ideas, and I have the
nagging feeling that my lack of currency in a bunch of fields is
causing me to miss some connections I could use in my own research.
So, I'm looking for a reading list of, say, the one hundred most
important papers of the decade. It doesn't have to be an even
hundred, but I'm looking for a good summer's reading. (Given that
it's mid-2009, now would be a good time to start composing such a list
anyway, depending on where you want to place the "decade" boundary.)
I want these…
pontiff | July 28, 2009Today on the arXiv an new paper appeared of great significance to quantum computational complexity: arXiv:0907.4737 (vote for it on scirate here)
Title: QIP = PSPACE
Authors: Rahul Jain, Zhengfeng Ji, Sarvagya Upadhyay, John Watrous
We prove that the complexity class QIP, which consists of all problems having quantum interactive proof systems, is contained in PSPACE. This containment is proved by applying a parallelized form of the matrix multiplicative weights update method to a class of semidefinite programs that captures the computational power of quantum interactive proofs. As the…
pontiff | July 16, 2009David Poulin sends me a job announcement for quantum information processing in the solid state at the University of Sherbrooke:
Permanent position for a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) on solid state quantum information processing
University of Sherbrooke is seeking candidates for a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC). The successful candidate will obtain a permanent full professorship in the Physics Department of University of Sherbrooke in the Faculty of Sciences. The CERC program aims to attract and retain the world's most accomplished and promising minds. This program will…
pontiff | July 9, 2009The report from the Workshop on Quantum Information Science has now been posted. Color commentary soon :)