Looking over the AMO/Condensed Matter job rumor mill this moring I was hoping to see that the luck of theoretical quantum computing folk in U.S. physics departments has improved, but alas! Anyone willing to rumor monger and lighten my mood by revealing a change in attitude? And, since it was just Memorial Day here in the US:
Where have all the quantum theorists gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the quantum theorists gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the quantum theorists gone?
Canada has picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
It seems like the North American hotspots for physics-oriented theoretical quantum computing are Calgary and Waterloo. Now, both Barry Sanders and Ray Laflamme are running great institutes at their respective universities, but two is not a lot of choice. What if neither one happens to have a faculty position open during one’s “window of opportunity” for finding a tenure-track position?
I fear that the supply of postdocs and senior graduate students in physics oriented QI theory greatly outstrips the faculty-level demand, at least in North America.
Can anyone comment on whether the situation is better in Europe, the UK, Australia, NZ, or Asia? Are things much better for those on the computer science side of quantum information (that is, those of us who aren’t Shtetl-Optimized)?
Well if you’re already in Waterloo, I suppose you walk up the street and try the PI.
The situation in the UK at least doesn’t seem to bad at the moment. This year was a Research Assessment Exercise year, so there has been a spurt of hiring. Probably not going to be good over the next few years though.
Australia doesn’t seem to bad at the moment either, but I know a lot less about what’s going on over there.
Some are headed to College Park Md, for the Joint Quantum Institute, a UMd/NIST/some others collaboration.