Barg Awarded IEEE Medal for His Contributions to Quantum Error Correction

A University of Maryland Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering has been awarded a prestigious medal from IEEE for his contributions to the theory of error-correcting codes and their applications in distributed storage, non-volatile memory, and digital fingerprinting.

Alexander “Sasha” Barg is the 2024 recipient of the Richard W. Hamming Medal, the highest IEEE-wide award for exceptional contributions to information sciences, systems and technology.

Barg, who is also an affiliate Fellow at the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS), is being recognized for his contributions to quantum error correction, which is a suite of techniques to maintain stable qubits by identifying and fixing errors in quantum computers.

His current NSF-funded research projects include “Quantum LDPC codes: structure and logical operations,” “Coding-theoretic methods in discrepancy and energy optimization, with applications,” and “From Storage Codes to Recoverable Systems.”

Barg is one of 42 medal recipients since its establishment in 1986. He will be honored on May 3, 2024 at the IEEE Honors Ceremony in Boston.

–Story by Maria Herd, UMIACS communications group

This story was adapted from a news release by the A. James Clark School of Engineering.