Re: [Aspuru-Guzik Group List] [qip] The Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lecture on 4/6

Dear quanta, This talk is at our usual group meeting time. I suggest we go to this and skip the group meeting that week. We also won't have a group meeting this week because of spring break. We are looking for speakers for future weeks. Send me an email if you're intersted in speaking. aram ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nina Wu <ninawu(a)mit.edu> Date: Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 2:22 PM Subject: The Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lecture on 4/6 To: Nina Wu <ninawu(a)mit.edu> *Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lecture* *Friday, April 6, 2018, 11:00am - 12:00pm in the Pappalardo Community Room, 4-349* *Reception to precede talk at 10:30am in the lobby of 4-349* Charles Marcus Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and Director of the Center for Quantum Devices “Using Topology to Build a Better Qubit” This talk will describe an adventure currently underway to coax into existence excitations (particles) that have non-Abelian braiding statistics—something yet unseen in the physical world—and to not stop there, but to try to employ these new excitations, Majorana zero modes, for a topological quantum computing. Which is more challenging: the mathematics of computing by braiding particles? The material science of creating hybrid materials that support Majorana modes? The nanotechnology of fabricating the devices? The condensed matter physics of producing them in the lab? The electrical engineering of controlling and reading out their state? The software to control the electronics on submicrosecond timescales? This talk will try to cover a small amount of each of these aspects, to convey the sense of complexity of quantum computing generally. *Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lectureship* A lectureship established by family and friends in memory of Robert H. Meservey. The lectureship brings in speakers in the field of Experimental and Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics for the Physics Department, as well as providing support for research and educational activities in the fields of Condensed Matter and Atomic Physics.