People
Meet the members of the Quantum Science & Technology Research Group.
Group members
Dr Jack Y. Araz
Director
Department of Engineering
Research Area: Applications of Machine Learning and Quantum Information
Relevant activity: Dr Jack Y. Araz’s research spans quantum simulation, quantum algorithms and quantum machine learning, providing a strong scientific foundation for the Quantum Research Group. His work focuses on developing variational quantum algorithms, quantum optimal control and tensor-network methods to model complex many-body and open quantum systems, including lattice gauge theories and quantum chaotic models.
He has also pioneered theory-driven quantum machine learning techniques that leverage the structure of entanglement and interpretable quantum embeddings, with applications to collider physics, anomaly detection, and high-dimensional data analysis.
Professor Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo
Department of Mathematics
Research Area: Theoretical Physics
Relevant Activity: Prof Olalla A. Castro-Alvaredo’s research area is integrable quantum field theory in 1+1 dimensions, with applications to various problems in mathematical physics. Her research primarily focuses on computing entanglement measures and on characterizing the dynamics of physical quantities, including these measures, in many-body quantum systems.
She employs a range of methods, including the generalized hydrodynamics approach (which she co-pioneered), the form factor approach, and the Bethe ansatz. She is a handling editor for the journal Nuclear Physics B and a recipient of the 2025 Frontiers of Science Award.
Dr Alessandro De Martino
Department of Mathematics
Research Area: Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
Relevant Activity: Dr Alessandro De Martino’s research focuses on modelling the electronic and transport properties of novel quantum materials, such as graphene, topological insulators and topological metals, and carbon nanotubes. His work combines analytical and numerical methods to uncover fundamental quantum phenomena in low-dimensional and topologically nontrivial systems, with potential impact on future quantum technologies and nanoelectronic devices.
Dr De Martino serves on the organising committee of the Capri Spring School on Transport in Nanostructures, an internationally recognised annual advanced school for PhD students and early-career postdocs.
Professor Andreas Fring
Director
Department of Mathematics
Research Area: Mathematical Physics
Relevant Activity: Prof Andreas Fring’s research lies in mathematical physics, with core expertise in classical and quantum integrable systems, 1+1-dimensional quantum field theories, and non-Hermitian/PT-symmetric quantum mechanics. He has made influential contributions to the form factor programme, particularly in the analysis of exact scattering data and correlation functions within integrable QFT.
His work has advanced the mathematical structure of quantum theories through the development of consistent non-Hermitian frameworks, metric operators, and exactly or quasi-exactly solvable models. More recently, Prof Fring has focused on higher time-derivative theories, exploring their quantisation, stability properties, and implications for fundamental physics.
His research integrates spectral theory, algebraic methods, and integrability techniques, providing essential theoretical foundations highly relevant for the establishment of a research centre dedicated to quantum research.
Professor Emmanuel Pothos
Department of Psychology
Research Area: quantum cognition
Relevant activity: the predominant framework for modelling human judgement and decision making is classical (Bayesian) probability theory. At the same time, there have been reports of persistent violations of Bayesian principles, including in very obvious and surprising ways (e.g., violations of binary complementarity). Such research has been underwritten by three Nobel prizes (all in economics and, in fact, the only Nobel prizes awarded for psychological work).
Prof Emmanuel Pothos' research is about exploring whether such violations can be modelled with cognitive models based on quantum theory, by which I mean the probability rules from quantum mechanics, without any of the physics. Typically, such models are assumed to be quantum-like; that is, no physical quantum resources are assumed.
Tooba Qasim (PhD Student)
Department of Engineering
Research Area: Quantum Cryptography and Post-Quantum Security
Relevant Activity: Tooba Qasim is a PhD student in Cybersecurity. Her research focuses on security challenges in quantum and post-quantum cryptographic systems. Her work includes the design and analysis of authentication protocols for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and the analysis of post-quantum cryptography in real-world systems including API-based infrastructures such as open banking platforms, with a focus on optimising cryptographic algorithms within modern security protocols.
Her research also examines the security and performance implications of implementing post-quantum cryptographic schemes on hardware platforms and resource-constrained devices. Her work aims to contribute to the development of secure cryptographic infrastructures for the emerging quantum era.
Professor Bogdan Stefanski
Department of Mathematics
Research Area: Theoretical Physics
Prof Bogdan Stefanski is a string theorist and theoretical physicist working across string theory, holography, integrability, and supersymmetric quantum field theory, with a focus on mathematically controlled approaches to strongly coupled quantum systems. He has made agenda-setting contributions to low-supersymmetry holography and integrable structures in AdS/CFT, and has undertaken major collaborative research with Ashoke Sen on foundational aspects of string theory and quantum gravity. His development of non-perturbative methods has broader relevance for contemporary quantum research, informing themes such as quantum information, complexity, and emergent quantum structure.
Since 2011, Prof Stefanski has been Principal Investigator on successive STFC Consolidated Grants in Theoretical Physics at City, providing sustained leadership for an internationally visible research programme. He has contributed to the UK research funding system through service on UKRI panels, including the Future Leaders Fellowship and Ernest Rutherford Fellowship schemes, and through membership of the EPSRC Peer Review College.
Prof Stefanski is a founding organiser of the London Theory Institute (LonTI), a joint City–King’s initiative hosted by the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, providing training and cohort-building for early-stage researchers in theoretical particle physics. He is also a long-standing organiser of the Triangle Seminar series, a premier and long-established theoretical physics seminar series widely regarded as a focal point for the London theoretical physics community.
Dr Felix Tennie
Department of Engineering
Research Area: Quantum Information/ Quantum Computing/ Quantum control/ Quantum Algorithms for nonlinear dynamics
Relevant Activity: Dr Felix Tennie’s research covers different areas in quantum information and quantum computing. The main objective is the development of quantum algorithms that allow for enhanced simulations of nonlinear systems, in particular computational fluid dynamics. This involves the design of ‘high-level’ quantum algorithms, as well as questions related to their implementation on near- and mid-term quantum hardware.
Dr Andrea Leonardo Guerrieri
Department of Mathematics
Research Area: Theoretical Physics
Relevant Activity: Dr Andrea Guerrieri conducts research in theoretical high-energy physics, focusing on S-matrix bootstrap techniques in quantum field theory and string theory. He is a leader of the S-matrix Bootstrap program and holds a University Research Fellowship (URF). His work addresses non-perturbative consistency conditions on scattering amplitudes, including analyticity, unitarity, and causality.
Dr Fedor Levkovich-Maslyuk
Department of Mathematics
Research Area: Theoretical Physics
Relevant Activity: Dr Fedor Levkovich-Maslyuk’s research focuses on exploring complex, strongly interacting quantum systems. He is developing new mathematical methods, such as integrability, to understand the properties of these models, ranging from spin chains, widely used in quantum computing, to field and string theories that offer new perspectives on the quantum world. He is also working on novel AI methods for mathematical discovery and exploring their applications for quantum circuit optimisation.
He has developed and teaches an MSc course on quantum information.