QuICS Graduate Student Receives Booz Allen Hamilton Fellowship

A graduate student in the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) will benefit from a fellowship awarded by Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading technology-consulting firm based in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Andrew Glaudell, a fourth-year physics doctoral student, is the 2016 recipient of the Booz Allen Hamilton Quantum Information Fellowship.

The award, established in June 2015, provides significant support for a University of Maryland student working on the theoretical aspects of quantum computation.

“Booz Allen Hamilton is delighted to sponsor Andrew Glaudell at QuICS as our Quantum Information Fellow,” says Joseph “JD” Dulny III, a lead data scientist in the company’s Strategic Innovation Group. “The work QuICS does is in the spirit of innovation and creativity that we strive to cultivate in our own firm. As research progresses and quantum technology becomes increasingly relevant for industrial purposes, collaborations like this one will pave the way for real-world quantum applications.”

QuICS co-directors Andrew Childs, and Jacob Taylor selected Glaudell from nominated graduate students for the fellowship after consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Taylor, who is Glaudell’s adviser, says Glaudell is deserving of the fellowship due to his focus and determination.

“Andrew is tackling some incredible, hard problems about quantum error correction and encoding of quantum information in qudits—a higher dimensional generalization of a qubit with, we think, better error correction properties,” Taylor says. “He brings great focus to the task, but also uses a wide-ranging toolbox—from numerical simulation of real physical systems to solving mathematically abstract challenges for quantum compilation. His ability to span that space of concepts, and the ability to work with our Hartree postdoctoral fellows, speaks well to his bright future as a scientist.”

Glaudell says he is honored to be the recipient of this year’s fellowship.

“Having a group of people show interest in your work and reward you for what you’ve accomplished thus far and what you hope to accomplish in the future has been a great motivator for me,” he says. “It really is a mutually beneficial award, though. The unique opportunity I have to discuss my research with such venerated industry researchers as those at Booz Allen Hamilton provides an interesting window through which I may peer into the lives of scientists outside academia; likewise, it provides them the opportunity to stay current with the cutting-edge of research efforts in the field of quantum information.”

As part of his fellowship, Glaudell will spend time working on theoretical aspects of quantum computation while actively observing and participating in research with the Strategic Innovation Group. He will also receive mentorship from a member of the group.

QuICS is a partnership between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is one of 16 centers and labs in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.

—Story by Melissa Brachfeld