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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Richard Kueng, M.Sc. ETH

Department Head (Quantum Computing) & Deputy Head of the Institute

About Richard Kueng

Richard Kueng is full professor and head of the department for Quantum Information and Computation at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. As of 2024, he is also an elected member of the young wing of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

Born and raised in the vicinity of Linz, Richard Kueng pursued his academic studies from 2007 to 2012 at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. After completing a BSc in Interdisciplinary Sciences and a MSc in Physics (top of his class), he started his doctoral studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. With an academic exchange at the University of Sydney in-between, he completed his doctorate at the University of Cologne in 2016 (summa cum laude). After brief postdoc appointments in Cologne and Berlin (Free University), Richard Kueng joined the California Institute of Technology. From 2017 to 2020, he held a joint research position at both the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) and the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences (CMS). In 2020, Richard Kueng returned “home” to Linz and is currently full professor (tenured) at the Department of Computer Science at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

Richard Kueng pursues an interdisciplinary research agenda at the interface between computer science (algorithms & computational complexity), physics (quantum information & quantum technologies) and applied math (convex geometry & high dimensional probability theory). Broadly speaking, he aspires to develop efficient and simple solutions for important algorithmic challenges that also come with rigorous performance guarantees. Concrete examples are efficient subroutines for quantum and classical data processing, as well as (convex) optimization. Applications in optics, wireless communication, the math of voting and electronic design automation are also within his portfolio.

Together with Hsin-Yuan Huang and John Preskill (both at Caltech), Richard Kueng developed the classical shadow formalism, opens an external URL in a new window – an efficient quantum-to-classical conversion procedure that has made a lasting impact on quantum computing technologies.

As an academic, Richard Kueng has worked at a total of 9 academic institutions spanning 3 continents. Since 2014, he contributed more than 50 scientific articles – most of which have been published in prestigious journals and conference proceedings, Science, Nature Physics, Physical Review Letters and many more. He received several awards for his academic track record, e.g. the ETH Zürich Willi Studer Prize (2013), the GECCO Human competitive results award (2017), the Quantum2Business applied NISQ computing paper award (2021) and the Kardinal Innitzer Prize (2022). Richard Kueng has also been an associate editor for Quantum, opens an external URL in a new window, serves in the technical programme committee for leading quantum conferences, evaluates proposals for the European Union, values academic teaching (excellent evaluations throughout) and has close ties to quantum industry (amazon science, opens an external URL in a new window, Google Quantum AI, opens an external URL in a new window, IBM Quantum, opens an external URL in a new window, Alpine Quantum Technologies, opens an external URL in a new window).

In 2023, Richard Kueng received both an FWF START award (acceptance rate: ~8%) and an ERC Starting Grant (acceptance rate: ~14%) for the project q-shadows: scalable quantum-to-classical converters.
 

 

Curriculum Vitae

Full professor and head of the department for Quantum Information and Computation at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Associate professor (tenured) for quantum computing, Department of Computer Science, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Assistant professor (tenure track) for quantum computing, Department of Computer Science, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Postdoctoral researcher, California Institute of Technology, United States

Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Physics, Free University of Berlin, Germany

Postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Germany

Doctoral Studies (continuation), Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Germany

Doctoral Studies, Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg Germany

Master Studies in Physics, Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Thesis title: "Calculating and bounding POVM norm constants"
Supervisor: Matthias Christandl

Bachelor Studies in Interdisciplinary Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Thesis title: "An RPMD approach to the tunneling splitting"
Supervisor: Stuart Althorpe


 

Selected research visits extending one month

Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley, United States (cut short due to COVID-19)

Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics, University of Bonn, Germany

School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia

Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom


 

Awards and Distinctions

Elected member of the young Austrian Academy of Sciences

ERC Starting grant for the project q-shadows: scalable quantum-classical converters

FWF START award for the project q-shadows: scalable quantum-classical converters

Kepler Award for Teaching Innovation, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Kardinal Innitzer Prize, Archdiocese of Vienna, Austria

Applied NISQ computing paper award, Practical Quantum Computing Conference (Q2B), United States

Human competitive results award, Genetic and Evolutionary Computing Conference (GECCO), Germany

Talentförderungsprämie für Wissenschaften, State of Upper Austria, Austria

Doctorate in Physics with distinction: summa cum laude

Willi-Studer prize, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Master Degree, grade: 6.0, top of my class (Swiss grading scale: 6.0 (best) to 1.0 (worst)), ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Austrian Matura, grade: 1.0, top of my class (Austrian grading scale: 1.0 (best) to 5.0 (worst)), Bundesgymnasium Freistadt, Austria

Publications

A. Elben, S.T. Flammia, H.Y. Huang, R. Kueng, J. Preskill, B. Vermersch, P. Zoller. The randomized measurement toolbox. Nature Reviews Physics, 1-16 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00535-2, opens an external URL in a new window

S.H. Sack, R.A. Medina, R. Kueng, M. Serbyn. Avoiding barren plateaus using classical shadows. PRX Quantum 3, 020365 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.020365, opens an external URL in a new window

H.Y. Huang, R. Kueng, G. Torlai, V.A. Albert, J. Preskill. Provably efficient machine learning for quantum many-body problems. Science 377, eabk3333 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk3333, opens an external URL in a new window

H.Y. Huang, M. Broughton, J. Cotler, S. Chen, J. Li, M. Mohseni, H. Neven, R. Babbush, R. Kueng, J. Preskill, J.R. McClean. Quantum advantage in learning from experiments. Science 376, 1182-1186 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7293, opens an external URL in a new window

A. Neven, J. Carrasco, V. Vitale, C. Kokail, A. Elben, M. Dalmonte, P. Calabrese, P. Zoller, B. Vermerschm R. Kueng, B. Kraus. Symmetry-resolved entanglement detection using partial transpose moments. NPJ Quantum Information 7, 152 (2021) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41534-021-00487-y, opens an external URL in a new window

H.Y. Huang, R. Kueng, J. Preskill. Efficient estimation of pauli observables by derandomization. Physical Review Letters 127, 030503 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.030503, opens an external URL in a new window

F.G.S.L Brandão, W. Chemissany, N. Hunter-Jones, R. Kueng, J. Preskill. Models of quantum complexity growth. PRX Quantum 2, 030316 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.030316, opens an external URL in a new window

H.Y. Huang, R. Kueng, J. Preskill. Information-theoretic bounds on quantum advantage in machine learning. Physical Review Letters 126, 190505 (2021) [editor’s suggestion] https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.190505, opens an external URL in a new window

M. Guţă, J. Kahn, R. Kueng, J.A. Tropp. Fast state tomography with optimal error bounds. Journal of Physics A 53, 204001 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ab8111, opens an external URL in a new window

A. Elben, R. Kueng, H.Y. Huang, R. van Bijnen, C. Kokail, M. Dalmonte, P. Calabrese, B. Kraus, P. Zoller, B. Vermersch. Mixed-state entanglement from local randomized measurements. Physical Review Letters 125, 200501 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.200501, opens an external URL in a new window

H.Y. Huang, R. Kueng, J. Preskill. Predicting many properties of a quantum system from very few measurements. Nature Physics 16, 1050-1057 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0932-7, opens an external URL in a new window

R. Kueng. H. Rauhut, U. Testiege. Low rank matrix recovery from rank one measurements. Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis 42, 88-116 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acha.2015.07.007, opens an external URL in a new window

D. Gross, F. Krahmer, R. Kueng. Improved recovery guarantees for phase retrieval from coded diffraction patterns. Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis 42, 37-64 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acha.2015.05.004, opens an external URL in a new window

H. Zhu, R. Kueng, M. Grassl, D. Gross. The Clifford group fails gracefully to be a unitary 4-design. arXiv preprint 1609.08172 (2016) https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.08172, opens an external URL in a new window

R. Kueng, D.N, Long, A.C. Doherty, S.T. Flammia. Comparing experiments to the fault-tolerance threshold. Physical Review Letters 117, 170502 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.170502, opens an external URL in a new window

R. Chaves, R. Kueng, J.B. Brask, D. Gross. Unifying framework for the relaxations of the causal assumptions in Bell’s theorem. Physical Review Letters 114, 190505 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.140403, opens an external URL in a new window

D. Gross, F. Krahmer, R. Kueng. A partial derandomization of Phaselift using spherical designs. Journal of Fourier Analysis and Applications 21, 229-266 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00041-014-9361-2, opens an external URL in a new window

 

Full publication list:
see Google Scholar, opens an external URL in a new window

Rigorous and non-asymptotic theory support for near-term quantum computers, opens an external URL in a new window 2021,
Habilitation thesis, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria,
Committee: Daniel Grosse, Karin Hummel, Martina Seidl, Armando Rastelli, Robert Wille, Alois Zoitl,
External evaluators: Elham Kashefi, Géza Tóth

Convex reconstruction from structured measurements, opens an external URL in a new window 2016,
PhD thesis, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany,
Advisor: David Gross,
Committee: David Gross, Johannes Berg, Gitta Kutyniok

Calculating and bounding POVM norm constants, opens an external URL in a new window 2012,
Master thesis, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland,
Advisors: Matthias Christandl, Frédéric Dupuis

An RPMD approach to the tunnelling splitting, opens an external URL in a new window 2010,
Bachelor thesis, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom,
Advisors: Stuart Althorpe, Frédéric Merkt

Further information

Name Richard Küng
Date of Birth April 25th, 1988
Nationality Austrian

1992-1993 Elementary School Linz Auhof, Austria
1993-1998 Elementary School Hagenberg, Austria
1998-2006 Bundesgymnasium Freistadt, Austria
2006-2007 Civilian Service, Betriebsseminar Linz, Austria

Selected Lecture Notes

Computational Complexity, opens a file, Fall Term 2023/2024
Department of Computer Science, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria

Introduction to Quantum Computing, opens a file Fall Term 2023/2024,
Department of Computer Science, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria

Introduction to Computational Complexity, opens a file in a new window Fall Term 2021/2022,
Department of Computer Science, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria

Quantum and classical information processing with tensors, opens a file in a new window Spring Term 2019,
Department of Computing + Mathematical Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, US

 

Selected Tutorials

The randomized Measurement Toolbox, opens an external URL in a new window March 2022,
QIP tutorial, Pasadena, US

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