Michael Aaron Nielsen (born January 4, 1974) is a

quantum physicist Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...

, science writer, and computer programming researcher living in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Work

In 1998, Nielsen received his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in physics from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

. In 2004, he was recognized as Australia's "youngest academic" and was awarded a Federation Fellowship at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

. During this fellowship, he worked at the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, at the

Perimeter Institute Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...

for Theoretical Physics. Alongside

Isaac Chuang Isaac L. Chuang is an American electrical engineer and physicist. He leads the quanta research group at the Center for Ultracold Atoms at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his undergraduate degrees in physics (1990) and elec ...

, Nielsen co-authored a popular textbook on

quantum computing Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

, which has been cited more than 36,000 times as of December 2019. In 2007, Nielsen shifted his focus from quantum information and computation to “the development of new tools for scientific collaboration and publication”, including the Polymath project with

Timothy Gowers Sir William Timothy Gowers, (; born 20 November 1963) is a British mathematician. He is Professeur titulaire of the Combinatorics chair at the Collège de France, and director of research at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Col ...

, which aims to facilitate "massively collaborative mathematics." Besides writing books and essays, he has also given talks about open science. He was a member of the Working Group on Open Data in Science at the

Open Knowledge Foundation Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global, non-profit network that promotes and shares information at no charge, including both content and data. It was founded by Rufus Pollock on 20 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK. It is incorporated in England an ...

. Nielsen is a strong advocate for open science and has written extensively on the subject, including in his book

Reinventing Discovery ''Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science'' is a book written by Michael Nielsen and released in October 2011. It argues for the benefits of applying the philosophy of open science to research. Summary The following is a list of ...

, which was favorably reviewed in

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

and named one of the Financial Times' best books of 2011 by the . In 2015 Nielsen published the online textboo
''Neural Networks and Deep Learning''
and joined the

Recurse Center The Recurse Center (formerly known as Hacker School; also called RC) is an independent educational institution, that, until the COVID-19 pandemic, combined a retreat for computer programmers with a recruiting agency. The retreat is an intentional ...

as a Research Fellow.https://www.recurse.com/blog/93-why-research Recurse Center Blog He has also been a Research Fellow at Y Combinator Research since 2017. In 2019, Nielsen collaborated with Andy Matuschak to develo
''Quantum Computing for the Very Curious''
a series of interactive essays explaining

and

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

. With

Patrick Collison Patrick Collison (born 9 September 1988) is an Irish billionaire entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, which he started with his younger brother, John, in 2010. He won the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005 a ...

, he researched whether scientific progress is slowing down. Nielsen resides in San Francisco.

Bibliography

* * This book is based on themes that are also covered in his essay on the ''Future of Science''. * * (Review of ''Information: The New Language of Science'' (2003) by Hans Christian von Baeyer).

References

External links

Michael Nielsen's account on TwitterPersonal website of Nielsen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Michael 1974 births Living people Science bloggers Open content activists Theoretical physicists Australian textbook writers Quantum information scientists California Institute of Technology fellows Fulbright alumni