Author: dabacon

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QSpeak Announcements for Week Ending 2/25/2011

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The Beavers Win a Game! The Beavers Win a Game! The Beavers Win a Game! I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I do not believe it!

Throwing off what must be a monkey of cosmological size, the Caltech men’s basketball team won their first conference game since 1985, 46-45 victory over Occidental. For those counting that is 310 straight conference loses:

New York Times article. What the world was like when Caltech men’s basketball last won a conference game. ESPN coverage.
Now I just hope they don’t let their basketball program take over the school at the expense of their academic reputation 😉

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US Quantum Computing Theory CS Hires?

I’m trying to put together a list of people who have been hired in the United States universities in CS departments who do theoretical quantum computing over the last decade. So the requirements I’m looking for are (a) hired into a tenure track position in a US university with at least fifty percent of their appointment in CS, (b) hired after 2001, and (c) they would say their main area of research is quantum information science theory.
Here is my current list:

  • Scott Aaronson (MIT)
  • P. Oscar Boykin (University of Florida, Computer Engineering)
  • Amit Chakrabarti (Dartmouth)
  • Vicky Choi (Virginia Tech)
  • Hang Dinh (Indiana University South Bend)
  • Sean Hallgren (Penn State)
  • Alexei Kitaev (Caltech)
  • Andreas Klappernecker (Texas A&M)
  • Igor Markov (Michigan)
  • Yaoyun Shi (Michigan)
  • Wim van Dam (UCSB)
  • Pawel Wocjan (UCF)

Apologies to anyone I’ve missed! So who have I missed? Please comment!
Update: Steve asks for a similar list in physics departments. Here is my first stab at such a list…though it’s a bit harder because the line between quantum computing theorist, and say, AMO theorist who studies systems that might be quantum computing is difficult.
Physicists, quantum computing theory,

  • Lorenza Viola (Dartmouth)
  • Stephen van Enk (Oregon)
  • Alexei Kitaev (Caltech)
  • Paolo Zanardi (USC)
  • Mark Byrd (Southern Illinois University)
  • Luming Duan (Michigan)
  • Kurt Jacobs (UMass Boston)
  • Peter Love (Haverford)
  • Jon Dowling (LSU)

I’m sure I missed a lot hear, please help me fill it in.

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Watson

Exciting times for machine learning and artificial intelligence fans: IBM’s Watson computer versus two of the flesh bound starting tonight, Feb 14, 2011, on the game show Jeopardy. And not just any humans, I guess, but Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter (I suppose the latter is less known to non-Jeopardy fanatics.) Too bad they aren’t competing against Seth Lloyd (someone have a link to the game show Seth won?) Here is a nice Nova special on the machine and the challenge. I sure hope Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the audience so he can tell us whether Watson is a good Terminator or a bad Terminator.
Update: Here is an amusing curmudgeonly discussion of Watson by Noam Chomsky. Don’t worry Noam, I’m sure Watson won’t feel sad about all your mean words 🙂

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QSpeak Announcements for Week Ending 2/4/2011

  • Quantum-Coherent Energy Transfer Conference, April 27-28 2010
    Dear colleague, We are delighted to announce our Royal Society Scientific Discussion meeting titled “Quantum-Coherent Energy Transfer: implications for biology and new energy technologies” to be held on 27-28 April 2011 at The Kavli Royal Society International Centre, Chicheley, UK. … Continue reading →
  • Postdoc at IQI in Aachen, Germany
    An opportunity to work for two of the best quantum researchers around: David DiVincenzo and Barbara Terhal have moved to the technical university in Aachen, Germany where they have now established an Institute for Quantum Information: http://www.physik.rwth-aachen.de/en/institutes/institute-for-quantum-information/. Currently they are … Continue reading →
  • Columbia Adiabatic Postdoc
    Quantum Information and Computation Postdoctoral Position http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/news/main/jobs/index.html A postdoctoral position in the field of Quantum Information and Computation is available in the group of Professor Boris Altshuler in the Department of Physics at Columbia University, New York (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics). This position … Continue reading →
  • Postdoc at Dartmouth
    A postdoctoral position is available in the group of Professor Chandrasekhar Ramanathan in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. Ongoing projects in the lab include characterizing the closed- and open-system quantum dynamics of spin chains; understanding the … Continue reading →
  • Institute for Quantum Information Science at the University of Calgary Jobs
    Institute for Quantum Information Science at the University of Calgary invites applications from motivated and creative individuals for several research positions. A new nanophotonics and quantum optics lab (Paul Barclay, http://www.iqis.org/nanophotonics/), with facilities both at the University of Calgary and … Continue reading →
  • 11th Canadian Summer School and 8th Canadian Student Conference
    Registration now open: 11th Canadian Summer School on Quantum Information (June 6th-15th) 8th Canadian Student Conference on Quantum Information (June 16th-17th) Jouvence, Québec, Canada The 11th edition of the Canadian Summer School on Quantum Information and the 8th Canadian Student … Continue reading →
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Observation

For every talk in computer science and physics there is now at least one relevant xkcd comic (is it coincidence that this occurred near the same time of IPv4 exhaustion?  I think not.)