Julia Kempe is a French, German, and Israeli researcher in

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 ...

. She is currently the Director of the Center for Data Science at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

and Professor at the

Courant Institute The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

Education and career

Kempe was born in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, to a family of Russian descent. She moved to Austria in 1990, and did her undergraduate studies in mathematics and physics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

from 1992 to 1995, with a year as an exchange student in physics at the

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a Institute of technology, ...

. She then earned two

Master of Advanced Studies A Master of Advanced Studies (MASt or MAS), or Master of Advanced Study, is a postgraduate degree awarded in various countries. Master of Advanced Studies programs may be non-consecutive programs tailored for "specific groups of working professio ...

(DEA) degrees in France: one in mathematics in 1996 from

Pierre and Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...

and another in 1997 in physics from the ''

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

''. She completed two doctorates in 2001. The dissertation for her Ph.D. in computer science from the ''

École nationale supérieure des télécommunications École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

'' was entitled ''Quantum Computing: Random Walks and Entanglement'', and was supervised by Gérard Cohen. Her second Ph.D., in mathematics, was 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 ...

, with a dissertation entitled ''Universal Noiseless Quantum Computation: Theory and Applications'' and was jointly supervised by

Elwyn Berlekamp Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp (September 6, 1940 – April 9, 2019) was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.K. Birgitta Whaley. She joined CNRS at the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

in 2001 (overlapping with postdoctoral studies at Berkeley and the Berkeley

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...

), joined the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

faculty in 2007, and moved her CNRS position from Paris-Sud to Paris Diderot in 2010.. Between 2011 and 2018 she was a researcher in finance. She became director of the Center of Data Science at NYU and a professor at the

in September 2018.

Awards and honors

In 2006, Kempe won the bronze medal of CNRS and the

Irène Joliot-Curie Prize The Irène Joliot-Curie Prize is a French prize for women in science and technology, founded in 2001. It is awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Airbus, Airbus Group corporate foundation, the French Academy of ...

of the French government. In 2009 she won the Krill Prize of the

Wolf Foundation The Wolf Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization in Israel established in 1975 by Ricardo Wolf, a German-born Jewish Cuban inventor and former Cuban ambassador to Israel. Ricardo Wolf Ricardo Wolf, the founder of the Wolf Found ...

, and in 2010 she won the ''Trophée des femmes en or'' (English: ) for her research. In 1998 she received a reward from ''

Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (German: , or ''Studienstiftung'' for short) is Germany's largest and most prestigious scholarship foundation. According to its statutes, it supports "the university education of young people who, on ac ...

'' (English: "German Academic Scholarship Foundation") which was awarded to only 0.25% of students at the time. She became a knight in the National Order of Merit in 2010. In 2018, she was elected to the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

Selected publications

*. *. *. *. *. Revised, ''

SIAM Review Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...

'' 50 (4): 755–787, 2008,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempe, Julia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century German mathematicians 21st-century German physicists German computer scientists 21st-century French mathematicians 21st-century French physicists French computer scientists 21st-century French women mathematicians French women physicists German women physicists French women computer scientists German women computer scientists German people of Russian descent People from East Berlin University of Vienna alumni Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni New York University faculty Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite Quantum information scientists Members of Academia Europaea