8/15/2024 Sarah Maria Hagen
Written by Sarah Maria Hagen
Recently, Illinois hosted the Beyond IID quantum information conference in its first-ever iteration in the United States. The conference focused on ideas from both classical and quantum information theory that exceed the standard consideration of “iid” (independent and identically distributed) events, carrying on the conference’s traditions while showcasing elements of the quantum culture here.
The first such feature was the guest lecture by Kenyon College Professor of Physics Benjamin Schumacher. Schumacher, the quantum information theorist who famously coined the term qubit, entitled his presentation “A brief prehistory of qubits”. The talk was open to the public and followed by a reception for all attendees.
Focusing on “where the qubit came from and what we were thinking about then,” Schumacher outlined his state of mind throughout the 1980s and 1990s during encounters with many pioneers of the quantum information field, perhaps known to many of the conference’s attendees only through their infamous publications.
“I put my conjecture on an index card above my desk on the 9th floor, and every day for a year I stared at it and tried to prove it… and I failed,” Schumacher described the period of his research before the concept of a system of specifically quantum information to deal with the quantum processes his colleagues were studying – he was struggling to “weigh” the information contained therein.
Of course, Schumacher would eventually solve his problem. The idea of a qubit—said in jest to William Wootters—helped him get there. The concept of a unit of quantum information has made the job of quantum information theorists possible, as have conferences like Beyond IID.
Two memorial lectures throughout the week honored past contributors to the theoretical side of quantum information science, Mary Beth Ruskai and Christopher King. These were complemented by three additional invited talks, reflecting the breadth of research showcased by Beyond IID, including quantum cryptography, quantum Shannon theory, and matrix analysis. Most of the programming consisted of individual contributed talks from a wide range of subdisciplines.
“Traditionally, classical information theorists have attended the conference,” said the local organizing committee chair and IQUIST Member, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Scholar Felix Leditzky. “In recent years, the connections to mathematical physicists have grown stronger, and this year, we had a lot of talks on learning theory and quantum thermodynamics.”
With over one hundred attendees, the conference fulfilled its primary goal of bringing together researchers from these various subfields to disseminate and collaborate on their research. Collaboration is the cornerstone of Beyond IID, which goes above the general standard for conferences to encourage meetups between attendees. The conference holds an open problems session to directly facilitate conversation about yet unsolved questions, as well as a music session after the conference dinner which brings researchers together in a more relaxed and casual atmosphere.
“Beyond IID has always tried to be welcoming to early-career researchers, and I myself benefitted greatly from attending Beyond IID conferences, first as a student, then as a postdoc, and now as faculty,” said Leditzky. “I started a lot of long-term collaborations, professional connections, and friendships during and through Beyond IID conferences, which have a great track record of sparking new research.”
This year’s conference—made possible with the support of the NSF, IQUIST, and the Illinois Deptartment of Mathematics—should leave its attendees with many novel questions before they reunite for the event’s next iteration in Munich in 2025.
Those researchers will be armed with the (ever-expanding) toolkit of quantum information and can rest easier appreciating the following quote by Rolf Landauer, which was said to John Wheeler and quoted by Benjamin Schumacher during his Beyond IID lecture: “One of my favorite things about quantum information is that it has slowed us to ask questions about quantum mechanics in a way that allows us to answer them.”