Quantum Physics, Molecular Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Information

Professor Whaley’s research is at the interfaces of chemistry with physics and with biology. Her work is broadly focused on quantum information and quantum computation, control and simulation of complex quantum systems, and quantum effects in biological systems. Quantum information processing employs superposition, entanglement, and probabilistic measurement to encode and manipulate information in very different ways from the classical information processing underlying current electronic technology. Theoretical research of Professor Whaley’s group in this area is focused in quantum control, quantum information and quantum measurement, analysis and simulation of open quantum systems, macroscopic quantum states and quantum metrology. Specific topics of current interest include quantum feedback control, quantum reservoir engineering, topological quantum computation, and analysis of macroscopic quantum superpositions in interacting many-body systems. Such superposition states, dramatically illustrated by Schrodinger’s famous cat paradox, offer unprecedented opportunities for precision measurements. Professor Whaley’s recent research in quantum biology seeks to characterize and understand the role of quantum dynamical effects in biological systems, with a perspective that combines physical intuition and detailed quantum simulation with insights from various branches of quantum science – quantum physics, molecular quantum mechanics and quantum information.