The construction and control of quantum systems holds great promise for society, from faster algorithms for fundamental problems to the construction of new materials and drugs. This is a field that is currently limited mostly by the availability of talent. This award funds a quantum computing and information science faculty fellow at Harvard University to address this shortfall. Through research and educational activities, the new faculty fellow will be able to tap the talent in the Harvard student population toward these goals. Specifically, the fellow will develop and teach new courses in both the undergraduate and Ph.D. levels. The educational materials developed will be widely accessible outside of Harvard, and the courses will also participate in the "Embedded EthiCS" initiative to integrate ethics into the curriculum.
Recent theoretical and experimental progress in quantum computation and information has opened up a great many avenues for research in computer science and adjacent disciplines. Designing algorithms, protocols, and programs for new quantum devices, understanding their fundamental powers and limitations, and designing experiments to probe them, are all deep questions that will require collaborations between computer scientists, physicists, electrical engineers and researchers from many other disciplines. The QCIS faculty fellow will join an environment where such collaboration is encouraged and facilitated, and be given the tools and opportunities to explore some of these deep intellectual questions, including: (a) collaborate with researchers in computer science, pure and applied physics, electrical engineering, statistics, and pure and applied mathematics; (b) be a full member of the Harvard Quantum Initiative (HQI) and participate in cross-disciplinary seminars and activities. The initiative spans across several departments and schools at Harvard, including Physics, Applied Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; (c) be involved in the selection of HQI graduate student and postdoctoral fellows; and (d) Design new courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels that cross between computer science and physics (e.g., quantum computation), computer science and electrical engineering (e.g., quantum error correcting codes), or computer science and mathematics (e.g., quantum information theory).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
