Joseph Priest was a long-time faculty member of the Department of Physics at Miami University.  He earned his master’s degree in physics from Miami University and his physics Ph.D. degree from Purdue University.  After a couple of years working for IBM in New York, Joe joined Miami in 1962.  During his 45 years as a member of the physics faculty he built a reputation as a brilliant physicist and a beloved educator.  He was an educational pioneer and one of the first to introduce personal computers into the physics teaching laboratory, and he was the mastermind and curator of the legendary Culler Hall Foucault Pendulum. He received many honors while at Miami, among others,  he was one of the first recipients of the College of Arts & Science Distinguished Educator Award, he was Sigma Xi Researcher of the Year, he was named Miami University Distinguished Professor, and was awarded the Benjamin Harrison Medallion, Miami’s most prestigious award.

Alumnus Brant Watson (BA ’64, MA ’65) was Joe’s first graduate student at Miami; Brant endowed this lecture series to honor his advisor who set the foundation of Brant’s later success.  After earning his physics degrees from Miami, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in physics from Florida State University. Following a postdoc at FSU, he became involved in medical research at the University of Miami and eventually became Professor of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Brant is convinced that complicated medical problems can be mitigated with direct physical methods, and his success at the University of Miami proves him right.

Title: Quantum Computing with Atoms

Abstract: Quantum computers exploit the bizarre features of quantum physics -- uncertainty, entanglement, and measurement -- to perform tasks that are impossible using conventional means. These include the computing and optimizing over ungodly amounts of data; breaking encryption standards; simulating models of nuclei, molecules, and materials; and communicating via quantum teleportation. Quantum computer hardware can be as exotic as the rules underlying their behavior, and the best quantum hardware is based on individual atoms – suspended and isolated with electric fields and individually addressed with laser beams. This leading physical representation of a quantum computer has allowed unmatched demonstrations of small algorithms and emulations of hard quantum problems with more than 50 quantum bits. While this system can solve some esoteric tasks that cannot be accomplished in conventional devices, it remains a great challenge to build a quantum computer big enough to be useful for society. But the good news is that we don’t see any fundamental limits ahead.

Bio: Christopher Monroe is the Gilhuly Family Presidential Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Duke University. He is also the Co-Founder and former CEO and Chief Scientist of IonQ, Inc., the first pure-play public quantum computing company. Monroe has pioneered nearly all aspects of trapped ion quantum computers and simulators, from demonstrations of the first quantum gate, monolithic semiconductor-chip ion trap, and photonic interconnects between physically separated qubits; to the design, fabrication, and use of full-stack ion trap quantum computer systems in both university and industrial settings. He is a key architect of the US National Quantum Initiative, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, the UK Institute of Physics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.