Chao-Yang Lu was born in December 1982 in Zhejiang, China. He obtained Bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2004, and PhD in Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 2011. Since 2011, he is a Professor of Physics at USTC. His current research interest includes quantum computation, solid-state quantum photonics, multiparticle entanglement, quantum teleportation, superconducting circuits, and atomic arrays. His work on quantum teleportation was selected as by Physics World as “Breakthrough of the Year”. His work on single-photon sources and optical quantum computing was selected by Optical Society of American (OSA) as one of “Optics in 2016”, “Optics in 2017”, “Optics in 2019”, and “Optics in 2021”. His work on photonic quantum computational advantage was selected by APS Physics as “Highlight of the Year”, “A year of quantum highlights” by Physics World, and “World’s top 10 digital innovation technologies” by UNESCO. His work on refuting real-number formulation of quantum mechanics was selected by APS Physics as “Highlight of the Year”. He has been awarded as Fellow of Churchill College (2011), Hong Kong Qiu Shi Outstanding Young Scholars (2014), National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2015), Nature’s top ten “science star of China” (2016), OSA Fellow (2017), Fresnel Prize from the European Physical Society (2017), AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize (2018), Huangkun Prize from Chinese Physical Society (2019), Nishina Asian Award (2019), Xplorer Prize (2019), IUPAP-ICO Young Scientist Prize in Optics (2019), OSA Adolph Lomb Medal (2020), APS Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing (2021), World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2021), James P. Gordon Memorial Speakership (2021), Achievement in Asia Award from OCPA (2022), He Liang He Li Science and Technology Innovation Award (2023), and New Cornerstone Investigator (2023). He is the Chair of Quantum 2020 and 2022 conferences. He is a Divisional Associate Editor of Physical Review Letters, and has served as an editorial board member in international journals such as Applied Physics Reviews, Quantum Science and Technology, ACS Photonics, PhotoniX, Advanced Photonics, Advanced Quantum Technology, Science Bulletin, and iScience.
What is the focus of your research at the moment?
Currently, our group is pushing for a large-scale photonic quantum computer along two directions: one is building increasingly larger boson samplers, hopefully this year reaching over 3000 photons; the other route is trying to make two individual single photons interact strongly enough to implement a deterministic logic, which can be used, for example, in simulating fractional quantum Hall effect. Meanwhile, my research field has expanded from single photons to single atoms, which are trapped and manipulated in optical tweezer. These ultracold atom arrays are a very interesting platform for both foundational studies and emerging quantum technologies.
What do you consider to be the biggest advancement in quantum science to date?
In the broad field of quantum science, I think the invention of transistor has the biggest impact to our society.
In your opinion, what could be the next big breakthrough for the field of quantum science and technology?
I am hoping to see increasingly more unconditional quantum advantage experiments in communication, computation, metrology, and so on.
Dr. Dong was born in 1969 at Dalian, China. He received his Ph.D. at Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 1999. After that, Dr. Dong joined the Physical Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory of University of Oxford as a Visiting Professor, Kansas State University as Postdoc Fellow, the National Autonomous University of Mexico as a Visiting Professor, the Mexican Institute of Petroleum as Postdoc Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Professor, and the Superior School of Physics and Mathematics, National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) as full-time Professor through the program of excellent position, and he has a permanent position as Professor at IPN since 2007. He is the Regular Member of Mexican Academy of Sciences since 2012 and Visiting Professor at Louisiana State University in 2013. Dr. Dong was awarded the certificate by Pakistan president Mamnoon Hussain at 41th International Nathiagali Summer College in 2016. He received the maximum top prize “Presea Lazaro Cardenas” and was awarded by Mexico President Lic. Enrique Peña Nieto in President Palace in 2017.
Qin Li received her Bachelor degree and PhD degree both in Computer Science from Hunan Normal University, China in 2005 and Sun Yat-sen University, China in 2010, respectively. Since 2010, she been at Xiangtan University, China and become a professor in 2019. Prof. Qin Li has published more than fifty technical papers on quantum computation and quantum cryptography. At present her research interests are secure delated quantum computation, quantum algorithm, and quantum artificial intelligence.
Ming-Xing Luo is a full professor at Southwest Jiaotong University, China. He focuses on quantum information, quantum networks, and quantum batteries. He has published more than 100 academic papers in prestigious international journals, including Rep. Prog. Phys., Phys. Rev. Lett., Cell Rep. Phys. Sci., and npj Quantum Inf. He has been the recipient of National Science Funds for his ground-breaking research.
Lei Wang got his Bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University in 2006 and Ph.D. from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. He did postdoctoral research on computational quantum physics at ETH Zurich in the next few years. Lei Wang joined the Institute of Physics in 2016. His research interest is at the cross-section of machine learning and quantum many-body computation.