Winner of prize for innovative quantum computing announced

The Hartree Centre and Atos announce the winner of the UK Joseph Fourier Prize for innovative quantum computing research.

Atos and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre have awarded the Joseph Fourier Prize, aimed at supporting innovative work in industry or academia within the field of quantum computing, to Doctor Bipasha Chakraborty – a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge – for her research project ‘Quantum Computation of Quantum Field Theories’.

The competition encourages academics and industrial scientists in quantum computing to submit their research proposals for a chance to win €10,000 to support their work. Each submission was carefully reviewed and the winner selected by expert panellists from the Hartree Centre and Atos.

​The winning project aims to advance the application of Quantum Computation (QC) to solve complex equations in Quantum Field Theories (QFTs). These equations can be extremely difficult to tackle through classical computation, in part for giving rise to ‘sign problems’ – i.e., results yielding negative probabilities, which present no viable solutions.

“We are on the cusp of a quantum revolution, and at this crucial stage we must encourage and promote independent research that helps apply theory to practical quantum computing use. We are pleased to have identified a winner of the inaugural prize and to have partnered to deliver it.”

— Michael Gleaves, Deputy Director of the Hartree Centre