Hello! I'm Jeongwan Haah. I grew up near the southern end of the Korean peninsula and studied math and physics as an undergraduate at Seoul National University. I graduated from Caltech with a PhD in physics, was a Pappalardo Postdoctoral Fellow in Physics at MIT, and then have been a researcher at Microsoft Quantum.
I do theoretical research in the areas of topological phases of many-body systems, their connection to quantum fault tolerance, and algorithms for quantum learning problems. I ask questions of the following flavor:
- What phases of matter and dynamics are there if we forget much of the local details, and what probes do we have for them?
- What are the best ways to encode quantum information in physical systems where the merit is quantified by the degree of external intervention, tolerance to imperfect controls, and the complexity of logical manipulation?
- What are the best ways to characterize physical systems and to simulate them on quantum or classical computers?
More recent interests include random dynamics, seeking for universal features and developing derandomization methods. I love my profession in part because I can surely say "I'm working" while lying on a couch.
My research is interdisciplinary. I am fascinated by physical phenomena that are discovered through the lens of information, strive to answer ensuing questions with full mathematical rigor, and apply learned intuition to algorithms. Stanford excels in all areas I am currently interested, and, with very high probability, will have experts in topics that I will be interested in. I feel privileged to be able to work with some of the greatest scientists of the present and guide those of the future. I hope my influence will be positive.
I'm looking forward to the Winter Quarter in January 2025 when I will begin teaching a new course on Quantum Error Correction, PHYSICS 430.
My Q-FARM research areas are Fundamentals, Quantum Computing, and Quantum Simulation. A list of my papers is available at arxiv.org/a/haah_j_1.
