Professor Kade Head-Marsden

Professor Kade Head-Marsden
Department of Chemistry
Washington University in St. Louis
Abstract

Quantum information science as a playground for quantum chemists

There is an exponential cost to obtaining molecular electronic information pertinent to important processes such as catalysis, photosynthesis, and energy transfer. While quantum computing has shown early promise for reducing the scaling of these problems, practical realization of this promise remains challenging. The primary challenge arises due to the noise experienced by the quantum computer, limiting the size and complexity of possible algorithms and thus restricting the scope of possible applications. Detrimental noise occurs because qubits, the base unit of quantum computation, are fundamentally open quantum systems interacting with their environments. As we navigate this noisy quantum era, we need use-cases for the hardware we have access to now, along with creative paths forward. Here, I will discuss my group’s on- going efforts to utilize current quantum computers to simulate or emulate open quantum system dynamics, which are chemically relevant to processes such as molecular relaxation and excitonic energy transport, among others. I will also discuss an exploration of alternative computing platforms, based on molecular systems, and describe our efforts to model their electronic structure and potential as viable qubits.

Kade Head-Marsden

Professor Kade Head-Marsden is an assistant professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her B.Sc. from McGill University in Mathematics and Chemistry, her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in theoretical chemistry, and she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Her research group focuses on developing methods to treat static and dynamic electronic structure using both classical and quantum mechanical computational resources.

Hosted by Professor Sapna Saupria