working with me

Research topics

I am always interested in working with someone whose research interest is strongly aligned with me. These days, I have been thinking a lot about the following topics. If you think you have an interesting new idea, reach out to me!

  • Entanglement bootstrap program
  • Practical aspects of quantum error correction
  • Tensor networks on near-term quantum computers

Advising style

A question that I often get from a new student/postdoc is about my advising style. I describe it as a free-flowing but rigorous style. While I certainly have a specific research agenda in mind (see the Research topics), through discussions ideas can lead to new an unexpected directions. I very much welcome this and in fact embrace it. To me, the research topic is not of the primary importance per se. What is important is whether we can say “yes’’ to these questions:

  • Did we find something exciting?
  • Is it correct?
  • Are we being honest with ourselves?

The research in our group aims to find a scientific result for which we can say “yes’’ to all of these questions.

Working with me as a student/postdoc

As a first order of business, I am looking for someone who has a strong background in computer science, mathematics, or physics (with no particular order of preference). There should be an indication that you excel on at least one of these.

The way in which I do research can sometimes lead to a very long period (sometimes many years) of work without much progress. Needless to say, this can be a grueling experience and it is difficult to justify the time and energy you have to spend unless you really love doing science just for the sake of doing it. As such, I am looking for someone who enjoys the process of having a scientific discussion. To that end, I look for the following traits:

  • Strong independence: My advising style is very hands-off. As such, I tend to work well with people who are independent.
  • Intellectual honesty: I value people who can be honest about what they know and do not know and communicate that well with others.