Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Kane Hall Auditorium – Room 130
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Morss Professor of Applied Mathematics Peter Shor will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 10 in Kane Hall (KNE 130). Shor’s research interests has predominantly been in theoretical computer science: he formerly worked on algorithms, computational geometry, and combinatorics and currently works on quantum computing. Invitations will be coming soon.
Quantum Computing
Abstract:
Shortly after quantum mechanics was first formulated around 1930, it became evident that it was a strange theory. It took over fifty years, however, for people to realize just how pervasive its strangeness was. We have now discovered that information theory, the theory of computation, and the theory of cryptography all change substantially when quantum mechanics is taken into account. It turns out that this strangeness can be used to accomplish tasks with quantum information processing that are not possible classically. One example of this, and the one that really drew attention to this phenomenon, was my discovery that quantum computers could factor large numbers into primes in manageable time frames, something that would take digital computers billions of years. Further, the theory of information transmission changes substantially when information is transmitted over quantum channels rather than over classical ones. And we have also discovered cryptographic protocols that use quantum information to perform tasks that are impossible classically. I will discuss these discoveries.
Peter Shor is the Morss Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT. He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Caltech in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1985, under the direction of Tom Leighton. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, he joined AT&T. He was a member of its Research staff until 2003 where he joined the MIT faculty as a full professor.
Professor Shor’s research interests has predominantly been in theoretical computer science: he formerly worked on algorithms, computational geometry and combinatorics; and currently works on quantum computing. In 1998, Peter Shor received the Nevanlinna Prize. He was awarded the Gödel Prize of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1999. He received the King Faisal International Prize in Science in 2002. He is a member of the National Academy of Science (2002), and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011). In 2017, Professor Shor received the Dirac Medal of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. In 2019, Shor received the Micius Quantum Prize. In May 2022, Shor was named the recipient of MIT’s 2022-2023 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor the Institute faculty can bestow upon one of its members each academic year. In 2019, he received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and in 2022, he received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2023).
As of 2020, Shor is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2022 became a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS).
Our YouTube channel features last year’s Public Lecture in Quantum Science and Engineering, featuring IBM’s Dario Gil.
Sponsored by AQET, QuantumX, and IBM Quantum. If you are interested in supporting future speakers to come to UW, contact us at UWQIS or donate directly.
