About Myself:

I have recently joined Swansea university as a senior lecturer in Physics in the College of Science. I am also an Advanced Research Fellow of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). From 2002 to July 2011, I was based in the Dept of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge (UK) and member of the Centre for Quantum Computing I have held positions as a Marie Curie Professorial Fellow at the University of Kuopio (now University of Eastern Finland) as part of an EU-funded knowledge transfer programme, Research Fellow of the Cambridge-MIT Institute and coordinator of the Quantum Technologies Group, the Open University and my alma mater, the University of Oregon.

I have also been a visiting scientist at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at UCSB, a visiting lecturer at the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, China, and short-term visitor at many other institutes, where I have participated in special programmes related to quantum systems, control and engineering, including Institute of Mathematics & Applications at the University of Minnesota, the Bernoulli Institute in Lausanne, Banff Int'l Research Station, the American Institute of Mathematics and the Institute for Theoretical, Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP, Harvard).

Research:

My research is multi-disciplinary at the interface of the physical sciences, applied maths and engineering with a special focus on quantum systems and phenomena, in particular modelling, characterization, simulation, control and optimization of quantum systems and devices, with emphasis on applications from quantum chemistry to quantum computing. More generally, I am interested in theoretical and computational physics, dynamical systems and control, optimization and scientific computing. In the future I also hope to pursue interests in mathematical biology, especially the role of quantum effects in biological systems and processes, and new applications of quantum control in medical imaging.

Teaching:

In addition to supervising undergraduate, MSc. and PhD students at DAMTP and the Cavendish, as well as research projects by visiting students and postdocs from the US, Europe, Australia, India and China, I have developed a research-inspired course on Control of Quantum Systems. Currently, I am teaching Classical Thermodynamics (PH 124) and Solid State Physics (PH 207). In the past I also taught undergraduate courses in mathematics and physical chemistry, as a Teaching Fellow (primary instructor) in the Mathematics Department, and to a lesser extent as a Teaching Assistant in the Chemistry Department, at the University of Oregon.

Outreach:

I am very passionate about science, which helps us understand the universe we live in, and mathematics, as the language of science, and I do my best to try and communicate this to others, whether they be colleagues, students or just ordinary folks. As a such I have been involved in various outreach activities, from organizing Open Day exhibits to creating web-based educational materials. I am also a contributor to our recent quantum wiki project quantiki.

Events:

I am currently co-organizing a workshop on Computational Models for Quantum Device Design to be held at Banff International Research Station (Canada) in January 2011. In the past I have organized several workshops and summer schools including a Summer School on Quantum Information Theory and Technology together with Myungshik Kim in 2005, workshops on Quantum Control (2001), Industry in the Quantum Age and Quantum Information Technology Standards, and a Symposium on Quantum Technologies in 2006, and and a workshop on Algorithms for Control and Optimization of Quantum Systems at the University of Cambridge in November 2010. I have also organized special sessions on quantum control at major conferences such as a recent session at ISCCSP 2010 in Cyprus, joint with Edmond Jonckheere (USC) and Alireza Shabani (Princeton).