Postdoctoral Research Associate - Quantum Information

About UMass Amherst

The flagship of the Commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity, and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship, and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges, and 100 undergraduate majors. We believe every member of our university community can contribute to our ongoing success by striving for the highest level of excellence as we seek breakthrough solutions to mounting environmental, social, economic, and technological challenges in our world.

Job Description

The Quantum Information team at UMass Amherst is involved with modeling and optimization of quantum hardware, as well as development of new modeling methods and algorithms, in collaboration with the NSF Center for Quantum Networks, the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory, teams at MIT, University of Arizona, University of Maryland, and others. The team has wide presence in the open source scientific ecosystem, contributing and supporting packages, summer schools, workshops, and conferences.

This Postdoc position will be chiefly focused on methods development work, building upon our expertise in creating the fastest algorithms for modeling of entanglement purification circuits; creating the highest performance quantum error detection circuits; developing symbolic computer algebra systems for quantum hardware modeling; discrete event simulation for quantum networking; novel auto-differentiation techniques for discretely random processes and circuits; and more.

This position is expected to lead to the creation of the most versatile and efficient hardware modeling toolkit, capable of transitioning between variety of modeling modalities, used for the creation of digital twins for multiple decade-long collaborative centers. The new hire will work on challenging problems in expanding existing modeling algorithms to new domains, and creating hybrid techniques merging the best features of currently incompatible modeling methods.

The Postdoc position will lead to the creation of new software tools and algorithms, will involve the preparation of papers and conference presentations on this work, engagement with multiple independent NSF research centers, and supervision and mentorship of junior researchers.

Essential Functions

• Contribute to research in a highly technical Computer Science lab. This can involve: developing new ideas, algorithms, software and hardware; designing, documenting, modifying and debugging software; evaluating and validating software, circuits, algorithms and architectures.
• Supervise research assistants.
• Carry out experiments in association with students, staff, and faculty.
• Describe techniques and results for use in scientific papers and conferences; assist in writing reports and articles.
• Contribute to the development of new research proposals.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Physics, or another Quantum Information related field.
• Capacity for excellent research, as demonstrated by publications and other professional activities, appropriate to the number of years in the field.
• Expertise with high-performance programming languages.
• Expertise with building and maintaining software systems.
• Familiarity with Quantum Information Science.
• Ability to work with a minimal amount of supervision.

Additional Information

The annual salary range is $70,000 - $80,000. Salary will be commensurate with experience and expertise.

Application Instructions

Along with the application application, please submit your resume and the names and contact information for three (3) professional references.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst welcomes all qualified applicants and complies with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws.