But the fact that the PMA also gave me this courtesy appointment is very nice because I like mathematics, and I sometimes want to discuss mathematics with mathematicians. But later, I focused entirely on physics, and that's why I changed to physics.
I was doing some computer science, or rather, quantum computation, which was related to real computer science. Previously, I held a joint appointment with computer science. KITAEV: Maybe it's not that important, but I appreciate that the Caltech administration gave me this appointment. ZIERLER: Why is it important for you to have a courtesy appointment in mathematics? I'm a physicist, and I teach physics at Caltech. KITAEV: It's a courtesy appointment for mathematics. ZIERLER: As a professor in theoretical physics and mathematics, is that to say that in some regards, this is a joint appointment? I don't know exactly why they decided to do so, but I'm very grateful that they did. KITAEV: A few years ago, they said they wanted to support me, looking at my research and my biography. Do you have an idea why you were named in honor of the Lindes? Is there any connection between your research and what they want to support at Caltech? It must be such an honor to be named after them. ZIERLER: Of course, Ronald and Maxine Linde are wonderful, great supporters of Caltech. KITAEV: I'm the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. ZIERLER: To start, would you tell me your current title and affiliations here at Caltech? I am delighted to be here with Professor Alexei Kitaev. Kitaev was part of the Breakthrough Prize's inaugural group of awardees, and his citation was "For the theoretical idea of implementing robust quantum memories and fault-tolerant quantum computation using topological quantum phases with anyons and unpaired Majorana modes."ĭAVID ZIERLER: This is David Zierler, Director of the Caltech Heritage Project. Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter Physics in 2017, and his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021. Kitaev's major recognitions include a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, the Breakthrough Prize in 2012, the Dirac Medal in 2015, the Oliver E.
Kitaev has also made major contributions in superconductivity and AdS/CFT theory, the latter of which has exciting implications for its ability to get us closer to a quantum theory of gravity. His research career at Caltech has grown in parallel with the Institute for Quantum Information and its expansion to the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, and his collaborations with faculty at Caltech and with industrial partners such as Google have continuously pushed the field ever closer to creating quantum computers. Preskill invited Kitaev as a visitor to Caltech during his time as a researcher at Microsoft, and Kitaev joined the faculty in 2002. In the mid-late 1990s, when John Preskill was starting to think about quantum information theory, he met Kitaev at a conference, and they connected over anyons Preskill worked on them in connection with his work in field theory, and Kitaev approached anyons in the context of fractional quantum Hall systems. Kitaev grew up in the Soviet Union and he attended the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology for college and the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, where he completed his thesis on quasicrystals in 1989. Wherever this endeavor goes from here, it is unmistakable that Kitaev's ideas helped launch the field. Debates continue about how long it will take to achieve a scalable quantum computer, how we will know when we have achieved it, and even about what novel tasks quantum computers can complete. As much as anyone else, the theories advanced by Alexei Kitaev have built that foundation.
Long before the field of quantum information had progressed to the point of considering the materials science and engineering required to construct a physical quantum computer- a massively challenging task in its own right- researchers needed a theoretical basis to be convinced that such a computer could actually work.
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