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| Preskill | |
|---|---|
| Name | John Preskill |
| Birth date | 1953 |
| Birth place | Oakland, California |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Theoretical physics, Quantum information science, Quantum computing |
| Workplaces | California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University |
| Alma mater | Princeton University, Cornell University |
| Doctoral advisor | Steven Weinberg |
| Known for | Quantum error correction, Topological quantum computation, Fault-tolerant quantum computation |
Preskill
John Preskill is an American theoretical physicist and educator noted for foundational work in quantum computation, quantum information theory, and the interface of quantum field theory with quantum gravity. He has held professorial appointments at several leading institutions and has influenced both research and pedagogy through collaborations with figures across particle physics, condensed matter physics, and computer science. Preskill is widely recognized for promoting cross-disciplinary dialogue among researchers affiliated with laboratories and centers such as Institute for Quantum Information, IBM Research Laboratory, and government research programs.
Preskill was born in Oakland, California and grew up in a milieu connected to West Coast scientific communities and academic centers such as Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. He attended Cornell University for undergraduate training, engaging with faculty who had ties to Bell Labs and the emergent solid-state physics community. For graduate studies he matriculated at Princeton University, where he completed doctoral work under the supervision of Steven Weinberg, interacting with contemporaries from groups associated with Institute for Advanced Study and research programs linked to Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab. During this period Preskill engaged with topics central to particle physics and quantum field theory, intersecting with seminars attended by scholars from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Preskill joined the faculty at California Institute of Technology where he became a professor of theoretical physics and later the director of the Institute for Quantum Information at the same institution. His career intersected with visiting appointments and collaborations involving researchers from Stanford University, University of California, Santa Barbara, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and international centers including CERN and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. Preskill organized workshops and conferences that convened scientists from Microsoft Research, Google Quantum AI, D-Wave Systems, and national laboratories such as Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has served on advisory panels connected to funding bodies like the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
Preskill's research contributions span quantum information theory, quantum error correction, topological phases of matter, fault-tolerant quantum computation, and aspects of black hole physics and quantum gravity. He introduced and developed concepts that linked stabilizer codes with classical coding theory and advanced the theory of Calderbank–Shor–Steane codes in dialogue with researchers from IBM, Microsoft Research, and university groups at Oxford University and Yale University. Preskill's work on topological quantum computation connected theoretical constructs like non-Abelian anyons to experimental platforms pursued at University of California, Santa Barbara and Microsoft Station Q. He contributed to discourse on the black hole information paradox alongside scholars from Princeton University, Harvard University, and Perimeter Institute, engaging with frameworks including the AdS/CFT correspondence and proposals tied to Hawking radiation and quantum entanglement.
His writings and lectures helped popularize the term "quantum information" in interactions with contemporaries at Bell Labs and groups at Bell Labs Research, influencing directions pursued by Google, IBM, and academic consortia at University of Cambridge and ETH Zurich. Preskill has also explored complexity-theoretic aspects of quantum computation in collaboration with researchers at MIT, UC Berkeley, and Cornell University.
At California Institute of Technology Preskill taught foundational courses that bridged quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and quantum information science, mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who went on to appointments at institutions such as Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University, and industrial labs including IBM Research and Google Quantum AI. He supervised theses that contributed to areas pursued at Perimeter Institute, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, and University of Waterloo. Preskill organized seminars and summer schools in collaboration with KITP and IQIM that brought together early-career scientists from networks involving Microsoft Research, D-Wave Systems, and national research councils. His pedagogical materials and lecture notes have been widely circulated and cited by students at Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Chicago.
Preskill has received recognition from organizations such as the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and international societies including the Royal Society and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been invited to give named lectures at venues like Perimeter Institute and award symposia sponsored by SIAM and the Institute of Physics. His nominations and honors reflect collaborations with contributors from NIST, DARPA, and academic groups at UC Santa Barbara and Caltech.
Preskill's publications include influential papers on quantum error correction, stabilizer formalism, and the theoretical foundations of topological quantum computation published in journals frequented by audiences from Physical Review Letters, Journal of Mathematical Physics, and Communications in Mathematical Physics. He has coauthored review articles and lecture notes that appear alongside works by scholars from Peter Shor, Alexei Kitaev, Michael Nielsen, Isaac Chuang, and others at institutions such as MIT, Harvard University, and University of Cambridge. Selected works are often cited in bibliographies produced by research groups at Oxford University, ETH Zurich, University of Waterloo, and Caltech.
Category:Theoretical physicists Category:Quantum information scientists