QDNL Visitor's Programme Update: Kareljan Schoutens & Garazi Muguruza Lasa
Quantum Delta NL invites talented individuals to participate in our community through multiple collaborative channels. The goal is to leave no talent behind by accommodating the goals and educational trajectory of prospective members.
Our visitor programme aspires to further broaden the international appeal of Quantum Delta NL by offering sabbatical stays and supporting exchange visits for PhD students, postdocs, and other stakeholders across the QDNL network.
Our outgoing visitors serve as ambassadors who visit leading institutions across the globe to learn the latest techniques and innovations and spread our knowledge while helping form important collaborations.
You too can apply for funding for a sabbatical, exchange visit, workshop, summer school and more, and the programme is open to applications across the domains of science, education and Industry!
Interested in visiting the Dutch quantum community or one of your partners outside of the Netherlands? Visit the QDNL Visitor’s programme page for all info on conditions and how to apply or contact Anne-marieke Crommentuijn at the bottom of the page.
This time we highlight the outbound visits of Kareljan Schoutens and Garazi Muguruza Lasa.
Kareljan Schoutens, Professor of theoretical physics at QuSoft and Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam visited the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford
Kareljan shared: "While in Oxford, I got to know the Oxford Quantum Institute, which unities more than 60 groups involved in quantum science and technology across the University of Oxford. I also participated in the Innovation Mission to the UK organized by Quantum Delta NL together with RVO and the Dutch Embassy in London. As part of that mission, we visited the UK National Quantum Technologies Showcase 2023 in London and we made a site visit to the Harwell research campus in Didcot (near Oxford), which is housing the UK’s National Quantum Computing Center (NQCC).
I spent nine weeks as a sabbatical guest at the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics of the University of Oxford, hosted by professors Fabian Essler and Paul Fendley. It was a great opportunity to develop and discuss new research directions. Three PhD candidates working with me on projects in the Quantum Delta NL CAT-1 programme on Quantum Computing & Simulation visited me in Oxford and we used our time there to make good progress on research projects on Quantum Random Walks, Quantum Algorithms based on Adiabatic Following and on Brick Wall Quantum Circuits with Global Fermionic Symmetry (see picture for the outline of our research paper on this)."
Garazi Muguruza Lasa, PhD candidate at QuSoft and the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam visited Sorbonne University in Paris
Garazi shared: "I visited the Quantum Information team at Sorbonne University (Paris) and was hosted by Alex Bredariol Grilo from September to December 2023. I arrived there with the idea of working on the recent developments in the foundations of quantum cryptography, and pseudorandom states, about which Alex had published before.
From the beginning, all the interested PhDs were invited to join our discussions, and this not only sped up the process of learning, but we also had a lot of fun on the whiteboard. Although our expected results don’t seem to be true, as often happens, we are now busy trying to prove that they can’t be true (what we call an impossibility result. We will shortly be submitting one of our results to ICALP."
This trip was the fresh air I needed to start the second half of my PhD: I was exposed to different ways of working, I learned a lot from all the seminars and discussions and I met wonderful people that I’m sure will continue collaborating with in the future.
"At the time I was in the middle of my PhD with a slight motivation decline, and this was exactly the energy boost I needed. They are a very positive group that took me with open arms.
Funnily, while I was presenting my previous work in one of their group seminars, one of the PIs noted that he had been working on a very similar problem previously but from a different perspective (he is a physicist, while I’m a mathematician). Although he was not the host of my visit, we are now going to start another project together that combines both our visions.
In conclusion, I continued my previous research line and started a new one, I was exposed to different ways of working, I learned a lot and I met wonderful people, I put in their maps the research we are doing in the Netherlands, which has also motivated some of them to consider a PostDoc in our group. This visit has greatly exceeded my goals and expectations."
