Andris Ambainis (born 18 January 1975) is a Latvian

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

active in the fields 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 ...

and

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

Education and career

Ambainis has held past positions at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

. He is currently a professor in the Faculty of Computing at the

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

. He received a Bachelors (1996), Masters (1997), and

Doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

(1997) in Computer Science from the University of Latvia, as well as a PhD (2001) from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

.Andris Ambainis' page
at the

Latvian Academy of Sciences The Latvian Academy of Sciences (, ) is the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the ''Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences'' (). It is located in Riga. The curren ...

Contributions

Ambainis has contributed extensively to quantum information processing and foundations of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

, mostly through his work on

quantum walk Quantum walks are quantum analogs of classical random walks. In contrast to the classical random walk, where the walker occupies definite states and the randomness arises due to stochastic transitions between states, in quantum walks randomness ...

s and lower bounds for quantum query complexity.

Recognition

In 1991 he received a perfect score and gold medal at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...

. He won an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2008. Ambainis was an invited speaker at the 2018

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

, speaking on mathematical aspects of computer science.

References

External links

Andris Ambainis homepageBetween Riga and Berkeley (in Latvian)(in Latvian)
{{Authority control Living people 1975 births Theoretical computer scientists Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Scientists from Daugavpils University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Latvia alumni Academic staff of the University of Latvia International Mathematical Olympiad participants