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About me

 

I am a theoretical physicist by training working on quantum technologies and related topics at Inria Qinfo team bi-located in Grenoble & Lyon, France and affiliated with the University of Grenoble Alpes and ENS Lyon.  Full CV available here. Summary below. 

 

Education

  • 2013: Department of Physics, Imperial College London, UK.  Advisor: Prof. Dr. Martin Plenio

  • 2010: Master, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, UK



Current position

  • 2022-present: CRCN at Inria, University of Grenoble Alpes, France (permanent faculty)


Previous positions

  • 2021 – 2022: Lecturer. Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2019 – 2022: Ambizione Fellowship. Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2017 – 2018: Postdoc. Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2016 – 2017: Postdoc (funded by own grant). Department of Computing, UCL London

  • 2013 – 2016: Joint UCL-NUS postdoc. Department of Physics, UCL London/CQT, NUS, Singapore

  • 2009 – 2010: Intern at Rutherford Appleton labs, Oxfordshire


Awards, prizes and noteworthy recognition

  • 2021 – Winner (with co-authors) of the AHP-Birkhäuser Prize, awarded to the most remarkable contribution published in the journal Annales Henri Poincaré in 2019. Award consists in a 3000 Euro prize and the chance to present the work in a special session at the International Congress of Mathematical Physics (ICMP) held in Geneva (August 2-7, 2021). See link for more details

  • 2020 – The program committee of the Quantum Information Processing (QIP) conference awarded our submission an upgrade to a plenary talk. It was only one of 5 plenary talks for QIP 2020. The 5 plenary talks are chosen by the committee to represent the most important breakthroughs in my field in 2019.
  • Invited participant and speaker at the “Quantum Innovators in Computer Science and Mathematics”, Sep. 2017 Waterloo, Canada.
  • 2013 – Invited participant in the Isaac Newton Institute’s scientific program on “Mathematical Challenges in Quantum Information” in Cambridge, UK.

Program Committees:

  • Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication, and Cryptography (TQC) 2021.
  • Time in Quantum Theory (TiQT), 2024.

Fellowships and Grants

  • 2019 – 2022: Ambizione Fellowship (awarded by Swiss National Science Foundation). Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Amount: 599,126 CHF (approx. 0.61 million €)

  • 2018 – 2019 Royal Society (UK) International Exchanges; co-applicant. Amount: 5,940 GBP (approx. 6,902 €)

  • 2016 – 2017 FQXi, Large Grant; main applicant. Department of Computer Science, UCL, UK.
    Amount: 60,000 USD (approx. 60,762 €)

  • Prior 2016: A few small grants for stipend and research travel totalling approx. 9k €


Teaching activities

  • Spring semesters 2021 & 2022: Lecturer for Quantum Sensing and Metrology Theory, ETH MSc in Quantum Engineering and MSc in physics. Worth 6 ECTS credits. Proposed and designed this brand-new theory course on this topic myself (no prior lecture notes available). (Lectures + tutorials = 45h)

  • 2022: Guest tutorial on quantum clocks at the Workshop Quantum Information and the Frontiers of Quantum Theory” conference at ENS Lyon, France, June 2022

  • 2019: Lecture course on Quantum Information Theory by invitation at the University of Tabriz (Iranian summer school)

  • 2017 & 2018: ETH proseminar assistant and substitute lecturer for Prof. R. Rener’s ETH undergraduate course



Publications & preprints

[preprints have arXiv links, publications have journal refs. Full arXiv list here]

 

  1. Quantum advantages in timekeeping: dimensional advantage, entropic advantage and how to realise them via Berry phases and ultra-regular spontaneous emission, Arman Pour Tak Dost and Mischa P. Woods, arXiv:2303.10029 (2023)

  2. Autonomous Quantum Devices: When Are They Realizable without Additional Thermodynamic Costs? Mischa P. Woods and Michał Horodecki, Rev. X 13, 011016 (2023)

  3. On the system loophole of generalized noncontextuality, Victor Gitton and Mischa P. Woods, arXiv:2209.04469

  4. Time-energy uncertainty relation for noisy quantum metrology, Philippe Faist, Mischa P. Woods, Victor V. Albert, Joseph M. Renes, Jens Eisert, John Preskill, PRX Quantum 4, 040336 (2023)

  5. A general framework for consistent logical reasoning in Wigner’s friend scenarios: subjective perspectives of agents within a single quantum circuit, Vilasini, Mischa P. Woods, arXiv:2209.09281

  6. Quantum Error Correcting Codes via Reference Frames, Yuxiang Yang, Yin Mo, Joseph M. Renes, Giulio Chiribella, and Mischa P. Woods, Rev. Research 4, 023107 (2022)

  7. Autonomous Ticking Clocks from Axiomatic Principles, Mischa P. Woods, Quantum 5, 381 (2021)

  8. Nonclassical temporal correlations enhance the performance of ticking clocks, Costantino Budroni, Giuseppe Vitagliano, and Mischa P. Woods, Rev. Research 3, 033051 (2021)

  9. Solvable Criterion for the Contextuality of any Prepare-and-Measure Scenario, Victor Gitton and Mischa P. Woods, Quantum 6, 732 (2022)

  10. Approximate quantum non-demolition measurements, Sami Boulebnane, Mischa P. Woods, and Joseph M. Renes, Rev. Lett. 127, 010502 (2021)

  11. Universal quantum modifications to general relativistic time dilation in delocalised clocks, Shishir Khandelwal, Maximilian P.E. Lock and Mischa P. Woods, Quantum 4, 309 (2020)

  12. Continuous groups of transversal gates for quantum error correcting codes from finite clock reference frames, Mischa P. Woods and  Álvaro M. Alhambra, Quantum 4, 245 (2019)

  13. Resource theory of quantum thermodynamics: Thermal operations and Second Laws, Nelly Ng and  Mischa P. Woods,  (Book chapter in Thermodynamics in the quantum regime – Recent Progress and Outlook, published by Springer) (2018)

  14. Quantum clocks are more accurate than classical ones, Mischa P. Woods, Ralph Silva, Gilles Pütz, Sandra Stupar, and  Renato Renner, PRX Quantum 3, 010319 (2022) Editors’ Suggestion

  15. Dynamical maps, quantum detailed balance and Petz recovery map, Álvaro M. Alhambra and  Mischa P. Woods,   Rev. A 96, 022118 (2017)

  16. Autonomous quantum clocks; how the second law limits our ability to measure time, Paul Erker, Mark T. Mitchison, Ralph Silva, Mischa P. Woods, Nicolas Brunner, and Marcus Huber, Rev. X 7, 031022 (2017)

  17. Autonomous quantum machines and finite sized clocks, Mischa P. Woods,Ralph Silva and Jonathan Oppenheim,  Annales Henri Poincaré (2019) AHP-Birkhäuser Prize

  18. Surpassing the Carnot Efficiency by extracting imperfect work, Nelly Huei Ying Ng,Mischa Woods  and  Stephanie Wehner,  New J. Phys. (2017)

  19. Realising a quantum absorption refrigerator with an atom-cavity system, Mark T. Mitchison, Marcus Huber, Javier Prior, Mischa P. Woods and Martin B. Plenio,  Quantum Science and Technology, 1,1 (2016)

  20. Dynamical error bounds for continuum discretisation via Gauss quadrature rules, — a Lieb-Robinson bound approach, Mischa P. Woods and  Martin B. Plenio, Math. Phys. 57, 022105 (2016)

  21. Work and reversibility in quantum thermodynamics, Stephanie Wehner, Mark M. Wilde and  Mischa P. Woods,   Rev. A 97, 062114 (2018)

  22. The maximum efficiency of nano heat engines depends on more than temperature, Mischa P. Woods, Nelly Ng and Stephanie Wehner,  Quantum 3, 177 (2019)

  23. Simulating Bosonic Baths with Error Bars, Mischa P. Woods, Marcus Cramer and Martin B. Plenio,   Rev. Lett. 115, 130401 (2015)

  24. Coherence-assisted single-shot cooling by quantum absorption refrigerators, Mark T. Mitchison, Mischa P. Woods, Javier Prior and Marcus Huber,  New J. Phys. 17, 115013 (2015) (Special edition: Focus on Quantum Thermodynamics)

  25. Mappings of open quantum systems onto chain representations and Markovian embeddings, Mischa P. Woods, Roland Groux, Alex W. Chin, Susana F. Huelga and  Martin B. Plenio,   Math. Phys. 55, 032101 (2014) 

  26. Probability distributions for measures of placental shape and morphology, Joshua S. Gill, Mischa P. Woods, Carolyn M. Salafia and  Dimitri D. Vvedensky,  Physiol Meas, 35, 483-500 (2011)

  27. Understanding extraction and beam transport in the ISIS H Penning surface plasma ion source, Faircloth DC, Letchford AP, Gabor C, Whitehead MO, Wood T, Jolly S, Pozimski J, Savage P and Woods M,  Rev Sci Instrum, 79, 02B717 (2008)