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Category Archives: Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self.
5 Years!
Five years ago I (it’s me Dave Bacon former supposed pseudo-professor and one time quantum pontiff) jumped off the academic ship, swam to shore, and put on a new set of clothes as a software developer for Google. Can it … Continue reading
Goodbye Professor Tombrello
This morning I awoke to the horrible news that Caltech Physics Professor Tom Tombrello had passed away. Professor Tombrello was my undergraduate advisor, my research advisor, a mentor, and, most importantly a friend. His impact on me, from my career … Continue reading
Portrait of an Academic at a Midlife Crisis
Citations are the currency of academia. But the currency of your heart is another thing altogether. With apologies to my co-authors, here is a plot of my paper citations versus my own subjective rating of the paper. Hover over the … Continue reading
Why I Left Academia
TLDR: scroll here for the pretty interactive picture. Over two years ago I abandoned my post at the University of Washington as a assistant research professor studying quantum computing and started a new career as a software developer for Google. … Continue reading
Lucky 13 paper dance!
Having recently rediscovered arxiv.org/submit, I thought I’d mention a few papers to come out of team UW. Two particularly exciting single-author papers are from students here. Kamil Michnicki has developed a 3-d stabilizer code on qubits with an energy barrier … Continue reading
The Quantum Interregnum Continues
The College of Cardinals continues to meet in conclave. But alas after a week there is only….black smoke.
Quantum Interregnum!
The Vicar of Randomization hereby informs the readers of this blog that the Quantum Pontiff Dave Bacon XLII has decohered. He further informs the readers of this blog that the entire Quantum Pontiff blog is in Justitium and hopes that … Continue reading
Goodnight CSE
good night room goodnight nom de plume goodnight notebooks goodnight tests goodnight grants goodnight Mike and goodnight Ike goodnight publish and goodnight perish goodnight whiteboard goodnight star, goodnight air goodnight noises everywhere.
Oh the Places I've Been!
In 1996 I participated in Caltech‘s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program under the direction of two postdocs, Nicolas Cerf and Chris Adami (their big boss now works the halls of D.C.) The research project I worked on was to try … Continue reading
dabacon.job = "Software Engineer";
Some news for the remaining five readers of this blog (hi mom!) After over a decade of time practicing the fine art of quantum computing theorizing, I will be leaving my position in the ivory (okay, you caught me, really … Continue reading