Friday, March 13, 2009
Welcoming Dr. Thomas Jennewein and Dr. Adrian Lupascu to IQC
The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Thomas Jennewein and Dr. Adrian Lupascu as the latest IQC Faculty Members and Associate Professors in the Physics Department at the University of Waterloo. Both researchers officially take up their positions March 2nd and 3rd, 2009.
With this recent announcement, IQC Director, Raymond Laflamme, said: "It is a real pleasure to welcome these two brilliant minds to IQC and to the Waterloo region. Dr. Jennewein has spearheaded efforts in quantum optics and cryptography at the University of Vienna and will lead the experimental effort in this direction at IQC. Dr. Lupascu's work has been focused on experimental superconducting atom chips and on superconducting quantum bits. At IQC, he will push the frontier of the latter area. Both researchers have been sought after for their talented achievements and we are all very excited to see what they will bring to IQC."
Dr. Jennewein's research interests are on the study of applications of quantum photonics and quantum optics, as well as the fundamental aspects of the quantum physics world. He is convinced that quantum information will play a key role in our future technologies for information processing. Particular examples of such quantum protocols being the secure communication based on the transmission of individual quanta, or the simulation of complex systems with quantum algorithms, both clearly outperforming today's classical methods.
His research will include the design of devices based on quantum photonics suitable for communication and computing with photons, and the development of ultra long distance quantum communication systems using terrestrial and satellite based systems. Finally, Thomas is also expecting that with the planned advances of quantum photonics devices and quantum applications, a deeper exploration of fundamental questions in physics will become possible.
Thomas Jennewein attained his PhD in 2002 at the University of Vienna. He focused on quantum communication and teleportation experiments with entangled photon pairs, awarding him the Loschmidt-Prize of the Austrian Physical-Chemical Society for his work. Since 2004, Thomas was a senior researcher at the Vienna branch of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) working on quantum photonics experiments. His main activities included the generation of entangled photons with parametric down conversion, the long distance transmission of entangled photons over optical fiber and free space, quantum computing with photons and fundamental tests for the delayed choice in quantum interference and quantum teleportation.
Thomas is also credited as a highly qualified electronics and software specialist. He has designed and built many novel research instruments, including single photon detectors and coincidence electronics. In 2006, he attracted a Linkage International Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, which enabled him to spend a six-month period between 2007 and 2008 with the University of Queensland. There he worked on experimental and theoretical studies of optical quantum information schemes.
Dr. Lupascu's research interests focus on superconducting devices. He plans to develop effective architectures for control and measurement of systems of multiple qubits. In addition, he is interested in quantum measurement using superconducting circuits and in exploring the properties of microwave photons. Hybrid systems for quantum information processing is another area of interest, which combine the advantages of microscopic and mesoscopic quantum systems.
Adrian Lupascu received his BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Bucharest, Romania in 1999 and 2000 respectively. His master's focused on scanning probe microscopy studies of thin polymer layers deposited on metallic surfaces. Upon completion, he relocated to the Netherlands and joined the Delft University of Technology to obtain his PhD in 2005. His graduate research centered around dispersive quantum measurement of superconducting flux qubits.
Previous to joining IQC, Adrian was a postdoctoral researcher at Ã.cole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France where he worked on the manipulation of neutral atoms on superconducting atom chips. Adrian is looking forward to his new position at IQC, as he believes it is the ideal environment to develop the next generation of experiments on superconducting qubits.
About IQC: Founded in 2002, the mission of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) is to aggressively explore and advance the application of quantum mechanical systems to a vast array of relevant information processing techniques.
A part of the University of Waterloo, IQC creates a truly unique environment that fosters cutting-edge research and collaboration between researchers in the areas of computer, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences.
At the time of this release, IQC has 18 faculty members, 20 postdoctoral fellows and over 73 students and research assistants, as well as a support staff of 10.