William "Bill" Kent Wootters is an American theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, and one of the founders of the field of

quantum information theory Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both t ...

. In a 1982 joint paper with Wojciech H. Zurek, Wootters proved the no-cloning theorem, at the same time as Dennis Dieks, and independently of James L. Park who had formulated the no-cloning theorem in 1970. He is known for his contributions to the theory of

quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where the quantum state of each Subatomic particle, particle in a group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic o ...

including quantitative measures of it, entanglement-assisted communication (notably

quantum teleportation Quantum teleportation is a technique for transferring quantum information from a sender at one location to a receiver some distance away. While teleportation is commonly portrayed in science fiction as a means to transfer physical objects from on ...

, discovered by Wootters and collaborators in 1993) and

entanglement distillation Entanglement distillation (also called entanglement purification) is the transformation of ''N'' copies of an arbitrary Quantum entanglement, entangled state \rho into some number of approximately pure Bell pairs, using only LOCC, local operation ...

. The term ''

qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...

,'' denoting the basic unit of quantum information, originated in a conversation between Wootters and

Benjamin Schumacher Benjamin "Ben" Schumacher is an American theoretical physicist, working mostly in the field of quantum information theory. He discovered a way of interpreting quantum states as information. He came up with a way of compressing the information in ...

in 1992. He earned a B.S. from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1973, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in 1980. His thesis was titled ''The Acquisition of Information from Quantum Measurements,'' and Linda Reichl was his doctoral advisor, while John A. Wheeler also served as a mentor. He was a member of the physics department at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

from 1982 to 2017, receiving the title of Barclay Jermain Professor of Natural Philosophy. He was elected a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

in 1999, for "contributions on the foundations of quantum mechanics and groundbreaking work in quantum information and communications theory." With Susan Loepp, he is the co-author of the book ''Protecting Information: From Classical Error Correction to Quantum Cryptography'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006).maa.org
review of ''Protecting Information'' by Darren Glass (April 5, 2007), MAA Reviews,

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

References

External links

Bill Wootters' homepage
1951 births Living people 21st-century American physicists Williams College faculty American quantum information scientists {{US-physicist-stub

See also

References

External links