Terry Rudolph (born in 1973) is a professor of
quantum physics
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 ...
at
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
. He co-founded quantum computing firm PsiQuantum.
Research
Terry Rudolph's research focuses on
quantum information
Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both th ...
and the
foundations of quantum mechanics. Notably, he is one of the discoverers of the
PBR theorem
The PBR theorem is a no-go theorem in quantum foundations due to Matthew Pusey, Jonathan Barrett, and Terry Rudolph (for whom the theorem is named) in 2012. It has particular significance for how one may interpret the nature of the quantum state.
...
, which allows for a formal and rigorous test on the ontology of quantum states. This discovery has been hailed as one of the most important in the foundations of quantum theory since
Bell's theorem.
After finishing his undergraduate studies 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 ...
in 1994, a year of backpacking in Toronto, he decided to do a PhD and chose the nascent field of quantum information. Upon completion of his PhD in 1998 he lectured for two years at the University of Toronto. After taking a postdoctoral position in Vienna for a year followed by a research position in Bell Labs for two years, he joined Imperial College in 2003 on an Advanced Fellowship. There he was promoted to full professorship in 2012. In 2016 he took a leave from academia and co-founded PsiQuantum, a
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
-based company that is building a photonic quantum computer.
He is the author of the popular science book ‘Q is for Quantum’.
Personal life
Rudolph is a grandson of
Erwin Schrödinger, which he learned about only after he got a physics degree.
See also
*
PBR theorem
The PBR theorem is a no-go theorem in quantum foundations due to Matthew Pusey, Jonathan Barrett, and Terry Rudolph (for whom the theorem is named) in 2012. It has particular significance for how one may interpret the nature of the quantum state.
...
References
External links
*http://qisforquantum.org/
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKGZDhQoR9E
Academics of Imperial College London
Quantum physicists
Living people
1973 births
{{UK-physicist-stub