Upcoming Seminars:
 Professor Jason Alicea, Caltech 3/10, 3pm 7316 Wean Hall Measurement-Altered Quantum Matter In the study of quantum matter, measurements have traditionally been viewed as a means of learning about a system. Measurements can, nevertheless, play a more active role—generating novel quantum phenomena that may be difficult or impossible to realize in measurement-free settings. As an interesting example, I will discuss how measurements can dramatically alter universal properties of quantum systems tuned to a phase transition. I will also highlight a path to experimental realization in analog quantum simulators based on Rydberg atom arrays. Finally, I will describe how these ideas inform optimization of quantum teleportation protocols against imperfections—establishing a long-term quantum science application of ‘measurement-altered quantum criticality’. Learn More |
 Professor Steven Girvin, Yale University 4/7, 3pm 321 Allen Hall The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics: A Brief History of Superconducting Qubits and Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantization in an electric circuit.” This talk will give a brief history of their work and the remarkable developments that followed from it. Circuit QED is the quantum electrodynamics of superconducting microwave circuits and is today the leading architecture for development of quantum information processors based on superconducting qubits. The study of superconducting electrical circuits began in the 1960’s with the observation of the Josephson effect. Ideas by Anthony Leggett about macroscopic quantum tunneling led to remarkable experiments in the Clarke group at Berkeley in the 1980’s demonstrating that the superconducting order parameter was a quantum mechanical degree of freedom exhibiting energy level quantization, and quantum tunneling. This in turn led to the invention of numerous species of superconducting qubits which have advanced in the last 25 years by a factor of nearly 106 in coherence time. These advances have opened up a completely new regime of strong-coupling non-linear optics in the microwave domain whose parameters and capabilities are dramatically different from traditional optical cavity QED. They have also led to enormous progress in industrial scaling up of the technology and have brought us into the beginnings of the era of quantum error correction. We may now be standing close to the boundary of the ‘NISQ’ era and the coming era of fault-tolerant quantum machines. Learn More |
Upcoming Conferences:
 March 31 & April 1 University Club Pittsburgh |
PQI regularly holds events for students, postdocs, and faculty members interested in or researching related fields in quantum information science and engineering at Pitt, CMU, and Duquesne University. More information is available below on the types of seminars and conferences PQI supports throughout the academic year. Information on previous events can be found in the events archive. Recorded talks from past events are available on the PQI YouTube Page.
How to Propose Seminars
PQI hosts a wide variety of speakers throughout the academic year. Our Distinguished Seminar Series highlights extraordinary and internationally recognized speakers nominated by PQI members and selected by the PQI Seminar Series Committee. The Collaborative Seminars provide an opportunity for PQI members to host a speaker with potential for collaborative work, while receiving partial support from PQI. The Student & Postdoc Seminar Series allows student & postdoc members to present their recent work to their peers. More information on each series is available below.
Types of Seminars & Proposal Instructions:
- PQI Distinguished Seminars in Quantum Science & Engineering
-
Who
- Speakers have significant cross-disciplinary appeal to the wider PQI community
- Distinguished speakers are nominated by PQI members using this form
- The PQI Seminar Committee selects speakers to invite; nominators act as hosts
When & Where
- Hosted on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 3pm
- Seminars are held at the host’s university
Speaker Receives
- Accolades, a PQI Plaque and swag
PQI Provides
- Travel booking and costs
- Hotel booking and costs
- Full day of scheduled meetings
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner with PQI members
Host Responsibilities
- Acts as faculty point of contact
- Introduces speaker at seminar
- Provides a list of faculty that should meet speaker
Stay up to date on our latest distinguished seminar here and check out our most recent seminars in our events archive.
- PQI Collaborative Seminars
-
When & Where:
- Hosted on the second and fourth weeks of the month
- Held at the host’s university
- Speakers can be suggested using this form
PQI Provides:
- Matching funds with a local department or program, at the level of $300
- Advertisement to broader community
- Maintains master schedule
- Accolades and PQI Swag, the speaker does not receive a PQI plaque
Host Responsibilities:
- Filling the speaker’s schedule by recruiting people to meet with the speaker
- Student & Postdoc Seminar Series
-
The PQI Student & Postdoc Seminar Series Committee holds student seminars at both Pitt and CMU. Student members present their research to other student members throughout the PQI Student Seminar Series. The series is held every Tuesday from 12:30-1:30pm. The schedule and the location of the seminar are available on the PQI calendar. Please reach out to the committee chair, Sayanwita Biswas, to obtain more information.
How to Propose Conferences
In addition to the annual PQI main event, PQI supports faculty hosted conferences at two levels. These conferences occur throughout the academic year as well as over the summer. All supported conferences should be made available to PQI members.
Supported Conference Tiers & Proposal Instructions:
Guidelines for PQI Workshop chairs
- Tier 1: Full Logistics & Planning
-
PQI Can Provide (and Maintain):
- Support for the conference at the level of $10k
- Full logistic coordination of venue, catering, AV/Tech
- Conference webpage
- Registration form
- Nametags for attendees
- Conference schedule for advertisement
- Advertisement
- Registration check-in for the event
- Contract for hotel room block, approves bookings
- Agreement for Anthony Travel bookings, approves bookings
- External vendors as needed
- Financial reports for expenditures
- Tier 2: Organizational Support
-
PQI Can Provide:
- Support for the conference at the level of $5k
- Assistance in communicating with venue, catering, AV/Tech
- Conference webpage
- Registration form
- Nametags for attendees
- Advertisement
- List of hotels in the area