William "Bill" Kent Wootters () is an American theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, and one of the founders of the field of

quantum information theory Quantum information is the information of the quantum state, 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 re ...

. In a 1982 joint paper with

Wojciech H. Zurek Wojciech Hubert Zurek ( pl, Żurek; born 1951) is a theoretical physicist and a leading authority on quantum theory, especially decoherence and non-equilibrium dynamics of symmetry breaking and resulting defect generation (known as the Kibble–Zu ...

, Wootters proved the

no cloning theorem In physics, the no-cloning theorem states that it is impossible to create an independent and identical copy of an arbitrary unknown quantum state, a statement which has profound implications in the field of quantum computing among others. The theore ...

, at the same time as

Dennis Dieks Dennis Geert Bernardus Johan Dieks (born 1 June 1949, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch physicist and philosopher of physics. Work In 1982 he proved the no-cloning theorem (independently discovered in the same year by William Wootters and Wojciech H. ...

, and independently of

James L. Park In physics, the no-cloning theorem states that it is impossible to create an independent and identical copy of an arbitrary unknown quantum state, a statement which has profound implications in the field of quantum computer, quantum computing among ...

who had formulated the no-cloning theorem in 1970. He is known for his contributions to the theory of

quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of ...

including quantitative measures of it, entanglement-assisted communication (notably quantum teleportation, discovered by Wootters and collaborators in 1993) and

entanglement distillation Entanglement distillation (also called ''entanglement purification'') is the transformation of ''N'' copies of an arbitrary entangled state \rho into some number of approximately pure Bell pairs, using only local operations and classical commun ...

. The term ''

qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, ...

,'' denoting the basic unit of quantum information, originated in a conversation between Wootters and

Benjamin Schumacher Benjamin "Ben" Schumacher is an American theoretical physicist, working mostly in the field of quantum information theory. He discovered a way of interpreting quantum states as information. He came up with a way of compressing the information in ...

in 1992. He earned a B.S. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1973, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1980. His thesis was titled ''The Acquisition of Information from Quantum Measurements,'' and Linda Reichl was his doctoral advisor, while

John A. Wheeler John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911April 13, 2008) was an American theoretical physicist. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr in e ...

also served as a mentor. He was a member of the physics department at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

from 1982 to 2017, receiving the title of Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy. He was elected a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

in 1999, for "contributions on the foundations of quantum mechanics and groundbreaking work in quantum information and communications theory." With Susan Loepp, he is the co-author of the book ''Protecting Information: From Classical Error Correction to Quantum Cryptography'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006).Review of ''Protecting Information''
by Darren Glass (April 5, 2007), MAA Reviews,

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

References

External links

Bill Wootters' homepage
1951 births Living people 21st-century American physicists Williams College faculty Quantum information scientists {{US-physicist-stub

See also

References

External links