Call for a Postdoctoral Fellow

in the Foundations of Quantum Computing

Our team is an interdisciplinary and international consortium that seeks to make foundational advances in the understanding and development of quantum computing. Our view is that the future success of quantum computing critically depends on advances at the most fundamental level, and that large-scale investments in quantum implementations will only pay off if they can draw on additional foundational insights and ideas. While several powerful quantum algorithms are known, the basic techniques they employ are few and far between. Largely, it still remains to be discovered how to systematically harness the quantum for computation.

As part of the consortium, we seek to fill a postdoctoral position.

Fellows will benefit from integration into a team of Canada-wide and international scientists: UBC (Raussendorf), Ottawa (Broadbent), Waterloo (Yard), SFU (de Silva), INL Portugal (Galvão, Barbosa), UCL (Abramsky), Stockholm (Bengtsson), Granada (Bermejo-Vega), Sevilla (Cabello), Bilkent (Okay), Gdansk (Sainz).

The position offers a highly competitive salary and travel budget. Teaching is not required. We strive to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in all our activities.

Location of tenure: Simon Fraser University (SFU), Department of Mathematics

Requirements: PhD in Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science (or a related area) and interest in developing further insights for applications to quantum information.

Target start date: As soon as possible

Duration: 3 years, renewable yearly

Applications are considered on a continuous basis until the position is filled

Postdoctoral fellowship at Simon Fraser University

Supervised by Prof. Nadish de Silva:

The selected candidate will work on foundational questions of quantum computation such as: precisely how, and for which class of problems, is quantum advantage achieved?  These questions will be studied using a mathematical methodology.  The position is thus open to a researcher in quantum computation with strong mathematical abilities or to a mathematical researcher interested in quantum computation.

Within quantum computation, the topics covered will include: fault-tolerant quantum computation, classical simulation algorithms of quantum circuits, and nonlocality/contextuality.  Mathematical techniques will potentially be drawn from abstract algebra, functional analysis, representation theory, number theory, and logic.  (Experience in all these topics is not a prerequisite for applying.)

Application should include the following:

• Cover letter, indicating interest in this specific position
• CV (please mention career breaks and any special circumstances)
• At least two (2) letters of reference

Applications are accepted via the following MathJobs links: Click here to apply

Please address questions to:  Prof. Nadish de Silva (nadish_de_silva@sfu.ca).