Sophia E. Economou is an American physicist who is a professor and a Hassinger Senior Fellow of Physics at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. She directs the Virginia Tech Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering.

Early life and education

Economou was a doctoral student at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, where she studied quantum dots. In particular, she was interested in spins in quantum dots, which could be manipulated optically. After graduating, she moved to the

United States Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

as a postdoctoral researcher and staff member, where she worked on quantum computing and quantum photonics.

Research and career

Economou directs the

Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering. Her research develops algorithms that can use noisy quantum computers to predict the properties of new molecular materials. Economou is committed to educating a new generation of quantum scientists, and created a first year course on

quantum information science Quantum information science is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the analysis, processing, and transmission of information using quantum mechanics principles. It combines the study of Information science with quantum effects in p ...

Recognition

Economou was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

in 2023, "for the development of quantum optimization methods, protocols for the generation of photonic resource states, efficient quantum control schemes for spins and nuclei, and a quantum curriculum for young researchers".

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Economou, Sophia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, San Diego alumni Virginia Tech faculty 21st-century American physicists 21st-century American women scientists Fellows of the American Physical Society