The following post was written by John Preskill.
I’m writing this guest post because I want all you quantum informationists to come to the American Physical Society 2012 March Meeting in Boston next February 27 through March 2. I’m telling you now, because the deadline for submitting your contributed abstract is next Friday. That’s 11/11/11, which is easy to remember. And lucky.
Why come?
Okay, maybe the March Meeting is not for everyone. Yes, last year there were over 8000 physicists at the meeting in Dallas, including over 3200 students. But that’s not everyone. No, not quite.
And those of us who came might not treasure every memory. Standing dutifully in line for what seems like hours, yet never quite reaching that much needed cup of coffee or sandwich. Missing at least 44 of 45 parallel sessions, while wondering what’s the harm in missing all 45? Surrendering to drowsiness after too many 10-minute talks in a row. Wondering who all these people are.
No, it’s not perfect. But the March Meeting is an exhilarating experience, and you really don’t want to miss it. Though you might want to consider bringing your own sandwich.
Quantum information has been well represented at the March Meeting since 2005, thanks to the efforts of the APS Topical Group on Quantum Information (GQI). Each year the membership of GQI has swelled and our participation in the March Meeting has ramped up, which allows GQI to have an even larger presence in the next meeting. Last year 311 GQI members attended and there were 324 contributed talks in the quantum information sessions. I hope we will beat those numbers substantially in 2012.
The March Meeting provides a valuable opportunity for quantum information enthusiasts to exchange ideas with the broader physics community, and to convey the excitement of our field. Naturally, since the March Meeting is dominated by the condensed matter physicists, the interface of quantum information with condensed matter is especially emphasized, but contributions in all areas of quantum information science are welcome.
The 2012 program will be especially exciting. GQI will sponsor or co-sponsor six sessions of invited talks covering important recent developments: topological quantum computing with Majorana fermions, quantum entanglement in many-body systems, quantum simulations, quantum computing with superconducting circuits, quantum information processing in diamond, and silicon spin qubits. In addition, there will be an invited session about career opportunities in undergraduate teaching for quantum information scientists.
If our turnout is below expectations, the GQI Program Chair gets the blame. And that’s me. So … don’t make me look bad — come to Boston and contribute a talk!
To register and submit an abstract go to:
http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/
You should flag your abstract with an appropriate quantum information Focus Topic or Sorting Category from the list available at the website, to ensure that your talk is scheduled in the proper session.
And if you are not a member of GQI, please join. Increasing our numbers means more visibility and influence for GQI within APS, and that too is good for the cause of quantum information science.
See you in Boston!
O brave new quantum world!