Science at the Edge Seminar

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Speaker:  David Kaplan, Institute for Nuclear Theory and Department of Physics, University of Washington

Title: Computing Reality

Refreshments at 11:15 am.

Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2018, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Type: Seminar
Location: 1400 BPS Bldg.

Abstract:
The world of quantum physics is complica­ted, and many ques­tions about how the world works need to be addressed by com­puters. But even then, some of the most pressing ques­tions are beyond the reach of classi­cal computa­tion. There is a lot of excite­ment build­ing about the poten­tial for quan­tum com­puters to make pro­gress in these areas. I describe (from the per­spective of a nuclear and parti­cle theorist) some of the ob­stacles to classi­cal compu­tation, as well as both some of the opti­mism sur­rounding quan­tum computa­tion and its tre­mendous chal­lenges.

Speaker Bio:
David Kaplan is a full professor at the University of Washing­ton and senior fellow of the Insti­tute for Nuclear Theory, of which he was the direc­tor from 2006–2016. His research inter­ests are in the applica­tion of quan­tum field theory to the strong interac­tions, lattice field theory, quan­tum computing, cosmo­logy, and physics beyond the Stan­dard Model.

David is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Ameri­can Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Washing­ton State Academy of Sci­ences, and is a Fel­low of the Ameri­can Physical Socie­ty. He is a recipi­ent of the Depart­ment of Energy Out­standing Junior Investi­gator award, the National Sci­ence Founda­tion Presi­dential Young Investi­gator Award, and an Alfred P. Sloan Founda­tion fellow­ship.