Current Research
A quantum computer is a new type of computer, which operates according to the counter-intuitive rules of quantum mechanics. We don't fully understand the ways in which quantum computers are more powerful than conventional ones, but many believe that someday quantum computers will allow us to solve important problems in chemistry, cybersecurity, and finance that are impossible for even the most powerful conventional computers. Before that can happen, we first have to build them. I'm currently a postdoc in Vladan Vuletic's group where I am part of a team developing a new experimental platform for quantum computing: a programmable atom array inside an optical cavity. In the Vuletic group, I also work on designing architectures for quantum error correction and cluster-state quantum computing with neutral atoms.
PhD Research
In classical physics, measurements reveal the underlying state of reality, but in quantum physics the story is more complicated. Can we learn anything about the past from quantum measurement? In my PhD in Aephraim Steinberg's group at the University of Toronto, I investigated this question by designing and carrying out an experiment to determine whether finding out that a photon has travelled through a cloud of atoms without being absorbed tells us anything about whether that same photon excited any atoms while in the cloud. My research has been featured in popular science journals including Physics World and Scientific American.
Photos of quantum optics and atomic physics labs at MIT and Harvard taken by @sinclairjosiah.
