The Cavendish QI group currently consists of one PI, one research fellow, two post-docs and four PhD students. In 2020, twenty eight students applied for the five master’s projects offered by the group. The hiring of additional senior academics would be highly beneficial for the group’s ability to expand and create closer connections to leading industries and experimental groups. The group’s connections with world-leading theoretical and experimental groups (at Harvard, MIT, Vienna, Grenoble, Toronto, etc.) are highly linked to the group’s post-docs. Having more senior academics in the group would secure that these valuable connections are not lost when the post-docs move on from their current positions. More senior academics could also facilitate the establishment of a proper visitor programme.
Physics students at the Cavendish are offered one, minor module in quantum information, given in their fourth year. At Harvard and MIT, for example, the physics students are offered five in-depth courses on theoretical topics within quantum information. For the Cavendish to continue to graduate world-leading scientists within this booming field, a first, crucial step is the creation of both minor and major modules covering various aspects of quantum information. The first steps would be to create a new quantum-information lectureship, alter the minor spring module, now given, and add a major module for the Michaelmas term.
The main areas of research of the QI group can be split into four categories: quantum computing, quantum metrology, quantum communication and cryptography, and the foundations of quantum mechanics.