CQE Student Feature – John Blue 

Research group name: Quanta Group

Research Advisor: Isaac Chuang

Hometown, Country: Richmond, VA, USA

Academic History Prior to coming to MIT: B.S. Math and Physics, Davidson College

What brought you to MIT? In undergrad, my research was focused on using machine learning to solve problems in nuclear and particle physics. However, in the spring of my junior year I took a class on quantum computing and knew that was what I wanted to do research on in grad school. After undergrad I spent two years working in the quantum information group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory where I learned a lot about the field, and also got to see how special the quantum community is at MIT (and Boston in general). There are incredible people working on all sorts of fascinating problems, and it’s a really fun environment to be a part of.

What interests you most about your research? During my time at MIT I have been doing research in the areas of quantum algorithms and quantum error correction. It’s an exciting time for quantum computing – experimental platforms are constantly improving, and it’s important to continue working on the theory side to reduce the resources required to run interesting algorithms. Any advances we make in algorithms or error correction could bring the day we can do useful computations with quantum computers a little bit closer, and I think this is what excites me most about my research.

What are your future plans: There’s a lot of great quantum computing research going on in all three of academia, national labs, and industry, and I would be open to working in any of them. For now I’m excited to make the most of my next few years at MIT.