Since joining Stony Brook University’s computer science department in the middle of October 2021, CQT graduate Supartha Podder is settling into his role as an Assistant Professor.

He is anticipating new responsibilities which include supervising students and teaching a graduate course on quantum computing in the coming semester. “Quantum computing is a topic close to my heart and I am getting the opportunity to teach it,” says Supartha. “I am really looking forward to that.” He will also be a part of the recruiting committee for the new student intake.

Supartha’s passion for educating and helping others shows in another project. Since 2011, he runs AALO, a charity organisation for underprivileged students in India, with friends from his undergraduate days. The organisation provides scholarships for students to continue their education and one-to-one mentorship.

In his research, Supartha works on quantum computing and complexity theory. He says he is fascinated by the possibility of quantum advantage, which asks for what problems quantum computers can or cannot give a speedup over classical computers, and how much speedup they can give. Supartha is also fascinated by quantum cryptography, an area of cryptography where quantum objects are used to achieve cryptographic tasks that are either classically impossible or less efficient.

“CQT gave me a lot of exposure to research which has already and is going to help me a lot,” says Supartha who enjoyed interactions with researchers at CQT and visitors from around the world, remembering exchanging ideas in CQT’s Quantum Café. Supartha completed his PhD in computer science in 2016 and was supervised by Principal Investigator Hartmut Klauck.

While in Singapore, he enjoyed the amenities the NUS campus had to offer, Singapore’s food, nature trails, places that he could visit with his family and rollerblading in West Coast Park. He also made lifelong friends. “When we had to leave Singapore, my wife and I were very sad. I would put it as some of the best five years of my life both academically and non-academically,” says Supartha.

CQT graduate Anurag Anshu believes that there is value in delving into research areas that are confusing, where he thinks important discoveries lie. He says, "The resources at CQT are really helpful for pursuing research in such areas. Our tendency is to gravitate away from them and move towards well-established fields with deeply founded knowledge. But it can be hard to discover new principles in the latter".

Anurag joined CQT’s PhD programme in 2013 and completed his PhD in computer science in 2018. He now works on quantum information and quantum Hamiltonian complexity. “The self-improving nature of research can be pleasingly addictive: good questions lead to better questions which lead to even better questions,” he says. Anurag counts himself fortunate to have worked on such interdisciplinary problems, especially at the intersection of physics and computer science.

He credits his graduate life, his supervisor CQT Principal Investigator Rahul Jain, and his colleagues for shaping his current research interests. His graduate experience has also moulded his approach towards mentoring students as a postdoctoral researcher at the Simons Institute for Theory of Computing. “This will be extremely important as I start bringing together a research group,” says Anurag who will be moving to a new faculty position at Harvard University in 2022.

On his time at CQT, Anurag’s most vivid memory is an exhibition day organised by the CQT outreach team at Singapore’s ArtScience Museum. “My role was to show an exhibit on a soap bubble computer,” he says. “It was wonderful to see how well the visitors appreciated the underlying principle that ‘computation is physical’. I learned a lot about the value of scientific outreach that day.”

Debashis did his PhD in the experimental laboratory of CQT’s Manas Mukherjee, building and running experiments on trapped barium ions. He then worked briefly as a postdoc in the Centre before accepting a job with KLA Tencor, a multinational company that develops inspection and metrology technologies for the semiconductor and nanoelectronics industries. He joined KLA Tencor’s Singapore facility in September 2017 as Systems Engineer (manufacturing). “The machines we build are extremely complex,” Debashis says. “My job is to troubleshoot issues during manufacturing and to suggest and perform design changes.” His leaning towards industry was apparent even earlier, as he filed a patent application and developed ideas for businesses during his PhD. Now, he relishes the chance to embrace the challenges of commercial technological developments. In 2019, he moved to the company’s San Francisco location.

Paul Condylis was a Research Fellow in experimental groups in CQT for over six years before shifting his career into the commercial world as a data scientist. He is now Head of Data Science in Singapore for the Indonesian tech company Tokopedia. Before taking this role in 2020, he worked for the Singapore-based fintech company Jewel Paymentech. As Lead Research Scientist , his role involved developing deep learning and machine learning models to understand text documents, classify images, and identify fraudulent transactions. “Moving from experimental physics into data science and AI was easy due to the skills I acquired as a researcher,” Paul says, “The grounding of a physics education gives you the ability to read and understand the current literature in AI, and then apply those techniques.”

After completing his PhD in quantum optics in 2018, Wilson Chin looked for a job outside academia. Another CQT alumnus working at Schlumberger, a provider of technology to the oil and gas industry, introduced Wilson to the company. Wilson is employed as a physicist in the Singapore Well Testing Center developing a multiphase flowmeter based on Gamma spectroscopy. He enjoys the opportunity to apply physics to commercial technology. “I appreciate the company’s capability as the technology lead in its field,” Wilson says. “The PhD training as a physicist has shaped my problem solving approach and perspective, which is perhaps the key differentiator in my new role.” Wilson completed his PhD supervised by Christian Kurtsiefer on “Light-atom coupling with 4PI Microscopy”.

Former CQT Research Fellow Li Yun is now an Associate Editor for the American Physical Society’s (APS) Physical Review X. She joined APS in March 2021 after four years as an editor with Nature Physics. “What I like about being an editor is that I can see lots of new research in different areas before the paper is published,” says Yun.

As an editor, Yun handles papers from when they are submitted. She reads the papers and relevant literature, provides assessment on whether a paper is an important discovery or significant advance in the field, seeks qualified referees to review the papers if needed, and communicates decisions about the acceptance or rejection of a paper with the authors and referees. “We work with many different people,” Yun says. “It is also exciting to handle a paper and see it improve during the review process with your help.”

With her background in theoretical atomic physics and many-body interactions, Yun usually handles papers in this field. Originally from China, her research career took her to France, Italy, Singapore and Australia. While at CQT from 2013 to 2014, she was a member of Berge Englert’s group and learnt Monte-Carlo simulations. For example, she was first author on a paper about “Berry curvature of interacting bosons in a honeycomb lattice” that required these numerical techniques.

Yun thinks having spent time in many different places is advantageous for her work. “For editors, having a broad knowledge of different fields and the people working in the fields is very important,” she says. “I’m glad I spent one year in Singapore which let me know about the good researchers there.”

In her current role, Yun continues to interact with the research community. She does outreach such as attending conferences and talks to researchers about important results and what they are looking for in the future in their field.

CQT PhD graduate Nick is now a Hardware Engineer for Apple in Singapore, developing devices to go into the company’s products. “The CQT PhD gives graduates the skillsets they need to compete in industry at a high level,” says Nick. He was hired by Apple in 2016 after an intense interviewing process. Nick completed his PhD in one of CQT’s ion-trapping groups in 2014. He then worked at CQT as a postdoc in quantum optics, before looking for jobs in optical engineering in industry. He found the Apple position through an advert online. At CQT Nick was involved in designing, building and programming complicated setups for precision measurements. “I use a lot of what I learnt in the lab. It’s not exactly the same tools, but the lab skills,” he says. This includes doing a lot of programming for the equipment they use. Nick can’t say what he works on for Apple. What he can say is “I am really enjoying it.”