JQI Fellow Vladimir Manucharyan has received a 2019 Google Faculty Research Award. It is the second consecutive year that Manucharyan, who is also an Associate Professor of Physics at UMD, has earned the honor.
This year’s award will continue to support research by Manucharyan and his team into quantum computing hardware based on superconducting circuits. They are pursuing the development of special quantum bits—called fluxonium qubits—for use in a new generation of computers.
The Google Faculty Research Awards support research in diverse areas, such as health, human-computer interaction and quantum computing, with an unrestricted financial gift. According to Google’s announcement, the proposals are judged for merit and innovation as well as a connection to Google’s products, services and overall research philosophy. They selected only 150 of the 917 proposed projects to receive funding.
The technology being developed by Manucharyan’s team is not only of interest to companies like Google that are working to develop the next generation of quantum computing hardware; it also offers a chance to explore new physics. Successfully creating devices from many qubits may open the door to simulations that will elucidate quantum phenomena in systems like complex molecules, magnets and impurities in materials.
Story by Bailey Bedford