2018 Dr Susan Coppersmith

Dr. Susan Coppersmith

Robert E. Fassnacht and Vilas Professor of Physics
University of Wisconsin, Madison

From Bits to Qubits: A Quantum Leap for Computers

Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at 4:00 PM

Robertson Auditorium(Formerly Blau Auditorium)
Ross Business School - 701 Tappan St.
University of Michigan Central Campus

Lecture Abstract:

The steady increase in computational power of information processors over the past half-centuryhas led to smart phones and the internet, changing commerce and our social lives. Up to now, theprimary way that computational power has increased is that the electronic components have beenmade smaller and smaller, but within the next decade it is expected to reach the fundamental limitsimposed by the size of atoms. However, it is possible that further huge increases in computationalpower could be achieved by building quantum computers, which exploit in new ways of thelaws of quantum mechanics that govern the physical world. This talk will discuss the challengesinvolved in building a large-scale quantum computer as well as progress that we have made indeveloping a quantum computer using silicon quantum dots.

Speaker Bio: 

Dr. Susan Coppersmith is the Robert E. Fassnacht and a Vilas Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  She is a theoretical condensed matter physicist who has worked on a broad range of problems in the area of complex systems, and has made substantial contributions to the understanding of subjects including glasses, granular materials, the nonlinear dynamics of magnetic flux lattices in type-II superconductors, and quantum computing. 

Dr. Coppersmith has served as Chair of the UW-Madison physics department, as a member of the NORDITA advisory board, as a member of the Mathematical and Physical Science Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation, and as a Trustee at the Aspen Center for Physics.  She has served as Chair of the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the American Physical Society, as Chair of the Section on Physics of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Gordon Research Conferences, and as Chair of the External Advisory Board of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Coppersmith is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.