Anna Dawid-Łękowska selected for the Top Talent Initiative

Quantum Delta NL is proud to announce that we have selected a new talent for our Top Talent Initiative; a programme designed to support and accelerate the careers of exceptional early-stage quantum professionals in the Netherlands.

Our latest Top Talent Initiative honoree is Anna Dawid-Łękowska, Assistant Professor at Leiden University, where she explores the intersection between quantum physics and machine learning.

In her own words, the question that drives her research is: what can artificial neural networks teach us about our reality and, in particular, about quantum physics?

The scientific community is made up of brilliant minds with deep intuition for the problems they study, but this intuition naturally shapes the kind of questions researchers tend to ask. Dawid-Łękowska’s work explores how machine learning can offer an additional perspective - a new lens to look at scientific problems. This is where neural networks come in. Although they are currently seen as “black boxes” whose inner workings are not yet understandable to us, Dawid-Łękowska is creating new “interpretable” architectures of neural networks (such as TetrisCNN). She believes that by doing so, we may uncover new insights about physics. As an example, she gives the analog quantum simulators, which can be built atom by atom and are well-controlled. By putting an interpretable neural network on top of one of these controllable quantum systems, it could use them as a playground for making new observations, which can then be understood by analyzing the structure of the network itself.

What makes Dawid-Łękowska’s research special is her ability to understand quantum problems as a quantum scientist but to also be able to identify if or how machine learning can help solve them. Her dream is to one day go beyond what human scientists currently find interesting by allowing an interpretable neural network to control a quantum simulator and do explorations and experiments in real time.

Finally, she shared her message to the quantum community, inspired by the book she is currently reading - “Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned”.

“The space of all possible discoveries and inventions is vast, and humans seem to have a knack for exploring it effectively. Our intuition about what is interesting serves us quite well (and I wish research funding took this more into account). I’m very curious whether a different form of intelligence might explore this space in a different way—perhaps not better or worse, but simply different — and in doing so give us fresh insights into long-standing problems.”

The Top Talent Initiative offers tailored support to help promising researchers and innovators grow their impact, expand their networks, and contribute to the Dutch quantum ecosystem. Each selected talent receives funding, mentorship, and visibility within the national and international quantum community.