Quantum information science and related technologies include quantum computers, which will be able to solve important problems beyond the reach of classical computers, as well as the ‘quantum internet’, an inherently secure network for communication and for accessing remote quantum computers. I will discuss these technologies, focusing on the question of how to enable them by creating and leveraging multipartite entangled states using near-term quantum systems. In the case of quantum networks, I will describe our protocols for the generation of logically encoded photonic graph states from quantum emitters. For quantum simulation, I will present our recent work on efficient variational quantum algorithms.

Bio: Sophia Economou is a Professor of Physics and the Hassinger Senior Fellow of Physics at Virginia Tech. She focuses on theoretical research in quantum information science, including quantum computing with solid-state and photonic qubits, quantum communications, and quantum simulation algorithms.