Stefano Scali, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Stefano Scali has joint the QuDOS group at the University of Exeter as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the industrial Innovate UK project with Vorsus Ltd.
He is specialist in quantum open systems and graph theory, and currently develops quantum protocols for topological data analysis. Stefano holds a BSc in Physics and Advanced Technologies from the Università degli Studi di Siena,
and an MASt in Physics from the University of Cambridge.
Dr Scali has earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Exeter, completing the project focused on open quantum systems, studying coupling to
environment in classical and quantum settings.
Stefano's expertise spans theoretical physics, numerical simulations, and software development, with proficiency in Julia, Python, C, and Mathematica. He develops innovative approaches to model quantum systems, with highligths like project stochastic spin dynamics, where he developed as a stand-alone Julia package,
and studies on exceptional points in wave scattering.
Before joining academia, Stefano also worked as a front-end developer at Koodi. He contributed to website development, worked as a CNC programmer/carpenter at Falegnameria Fosca, using CAD/CAM
design. This combination of industrial and academic experience has brought him into the world of quantum computing.
Kok Wee Song, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Kok Wee obtained his Bachelor's degree at National Tsing-Hua University (Taiwan) and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California (US) in physics.
After graduation, he was a postdoc at Argonne National Laboratory (US), focusing on the theory of multiband superconductivity. Then, he moved to National Graphene Institute (UK),
working on the optical properties and electronic correlation effects on 2D materials as a research associate.
From 2021, he is the postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter, QuDOS group.
His primary research background is in the emergent phenomena of quantum many-body systems. Until recently, he has developed a lot of interest in quantum optics with
2D materials, and currently leads the research in nonlinear polaritonics based on transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers.
Hsin-Yu (Ryan) Wu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Hsin-Yu (Ryan) Wu has joined the QuDOS group in 2023, enhancing to the UoE-PASQAL collaboration, and focusing on quantum scientific machine learning and differential equation solvers. His educational
background includes a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. in Power Mechanical Engineering from National Tsing Hua University,
and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from National Taipei University of Technology.
Ryan has previously had a role of Research Fellow at the Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, from 2017 to 2022. In his professional journey, he served as an Independent Research
Fellow at Taipei Medical University and contributed to the Center for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Center at the National University of Singapore.
From the industrial perspective, Hsin-Yu has hands-on experience in R&D engineering (worked at PI TA Pl. Ltd., Taiwan). He is passionate about developing new computational solutions
in the scientific and quantum computing domain.
Chelsea Williams, PhD student
Chelsea Williams has joined the QuDOS group in 2022 as a Ph.D. candidate sponsored by a collaborative project with PASQAL and Siemens AG, focusing on differential equation solvers
in quantum computing. Chelsea has a strong academic background in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, receiving MASt degree from the University of Cambridge in 2021, and BSc in Physics from the
King’s College London, where she perfomed computational studies and data analysis applied to astronomical observations.
Chelsea comes with a professional background, previously being a Quantitative Analyst at NatWest Markets. Her experience includes programming quantum annealers for combinatorial optimisation,
developement a recommendation engine for the sales team, and creation of data-driven ML models. She has also completed numerous internships in leading firms, with placements at Macquarie, UBS, GSK and others.
Chelsea is commited to developing algorithms for the fault-tolerant quantum computers, and innovating the field from an academic and industrial perspective.
Chukwudubem Umeano, PhD student
Chukwudubem completed his Bachelor’s degree in Physics at the University of Warwick (UK) in 2020. He finished his Master’s degree in Quantum Fields and
Fundamental Forces at Imperial College London (UK) in 2021.
His final project at undergraduate level was based on applying Python and machine learning techniques to classify crystal structures. For his master thesis,
he wrote a survey of quantum algorithms. Through several projects and courses, he has become comfortable with programming in Python and C.
From 2021 Chukwudubem is a PhD student at the University of Exeter, QuDOS group.
His project is focused on developing a theory for quantum feature maps. He is investigating different methods for encoding classical data into quantum states,
with the aim of constructing highly expressive quantum circuits for use within quantum machine learning.
Annie Paine, PhD student
Annie received her Bachelor degree in Mathematics at University of Oxford (UK) in 2018. She finished Master degree in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics at
University of Oxford (UK) in 2019.
Between years at university she has completed two internships, both of which were programming related. There she improved her programming skills (particularly
in C++, Python and Rust) as well as experiencing working in a team in a professional setting. At her second internship with Metaswitch Annie gained experience in
presenting her works progress and results as she was placed in a team which had daily meetings in which everyone reported their progress.
From 2020 Annie is a PhD student at the University of Exeter, sponsored by Qu & Co and supervised by Dr Kyriienko.
Her project is focused on finding useful quantum algorithms with near-term quantum devices. To deal with the limitations of near-term quantum devices she is
particularly interested in hybrid and variational approaches. The areas of application that she is focused on include differential equations, which permeate many
different areas of study, and finding the ground state energy of a system, a question of great interest in computational chemistry.
Salvatore Chiavazzo, PhD student
Salvatore finished his Bachelor degree in Physics at the University of Naples (Italy) in 2017. He acomplished his Master degree in Physics (Condensed Matter training track)
at the University of Trieste (Italy) in 2019.
During 2019 he was a visitor at the Institute for Quantum Computing, Waterloo (Canada), to carry out a master thesis project. The research stay was funded with the
Extra-Erasmus scholarship.
From 2020 Salvatore is PhD student at the University of Exeter, QuDOS group.
Salvatore's research is focused on two-dimensional materials, strong light-matter coupling, and optomechanics.
To date, he has successfully described and characterized of two-phonon cooling in electromechanical systems that operate in microwave domain, and
introduced the effects of strong coupling to doped TMD systems.
His current research activity includes theoretical description of dipolaritons in TMD bilayers and its application to single photon emission.
Rick Simon, PhD student (co-supervised)
Rick Simon has joined the University of Exeteras a Ph.D. student starting in autumn 2023. He is co-supervised by Dr Kyriienko, and comes a PhD student of Dr Luca Dellantonio at the Department of Physics.
Rick is an affiliate of the QuDOS group, and a part of collaboration with the emerging Dellantonio Group.
Mr Simon obtained both his MSc and BSc degrees from the University of Potsdam, Germany, working in the nanscent field of quantum thermodynamics.
During his previous studies, Rick contributed to a project focusing on the study of ergotropy, showcasing his strong analytical and computational skills. Currently, he develops efficient schemes for
quantum measurements, aligning with the dynamic and innovative environment of the QuDOS group.
Jon Middle, MSc student (postgraduate + project)
Daniel is a MSc student at the University of Exeter accomplishing his project on quantum computing under supervision of Dr Kyriienko.
His current ambitions for the future are to progress in the aerospace industry through upcoming 10 week internship at Rolls-Royce, to develop more generally his
coding skills and understanding of engineering.
Daniel has experience with the programming languages Python, C and Julia. In addition, he has used NX CAD modelling software during his time redesigning the
RB199 High-Pressure Compressor shaft on a week’s work experience for Rolls-Royce.
Daniel can be contacted via LinkedIn profile and email.
Daniel Winter, MSc student
Daniel was a MSc student at the University of Exeter accomplishing his project on quantum computing under supervision of Dr Kyriienko.
His ambitions for the future was to progress in the aerospace industry, develop his coding skills and using computing for advanced engineering.
Daniel has experience with the programming languages Python, C and Julia. In the project he has developed digital quantum simulators for discrete time crystals, specifically studying the extension from 1D to 2D geometries and tensor network simulation.
After the MSc project at QuDOS Daniel has joined Rolls-Royce.
Daniel can be contacted via LinkedIn profile and email.
Paul Taylor, MSc student
Paul has recently begun his MSc project on simulating time translational symmetry breaking with quantum computers.
He is interested in various aspects of quantum theory, and specifically quantum simulation of many-body dynamics. As a first step, he has run discrete time crystal evolution with various Qiskit back-ends, and benchmarked it with IBM Quantum devices available on a cloud.
His other interests include elementary particle physics.
Paul can be contacted via LinkedIn profile and email.
Kieron Lintott, MSc student
Kieron Lintott is a third year MSc Physics student at the University of Exeter working on quantum time crystal project under supervision of Dr. Kyriienko.
His interests lie in Quantum Mechanics and Theoretical Physics, and more generally solving challenging problems.
Kieron constantly develops new computational skills, and is an enthusiast of collaborative coding. He programmes in Python, Julia, C, and explores various machine learning approaches.
Kieron can be contacted via LinkedIn profile and email.
Tatiana Bespalova
In 2020 Tatiana applied for an internship at University of Exeter as a part of research collaboration with QuDOS group. While working under mentorship of
Dr Oleksandr Kyriienko she developed the protocol for Hamiltonian operator approximation, being a tool for energy estimation needed in various algorithms.
Currently, she researches new variational ansatze and simulation schemes for complex spin models.
Her research during the education included performing molecular modeling and also an exploration of nonperturbative effects in quantum field theory. She hopes to
develop or realize quantum algorithms to solve some of the problems in these areas one day. After her bachelor graduation she has decided to take the challenge of
exploring the quantum computing. As there is no courses on this topic in Russia she has studied it by herself with the book of Nielsen and Chuang and other
literature. Having got the basic knowledge in the field of quantum computations she started research on Hamiltonian operator simulation.
Tatiana will continue her scientifical path as a PhD student, joining group at IBM Zürich, Switzerland.