Stefano Polla wins Lorentz Master thesis award
Stefano Pollas master thesis 'Quantum Digital Cooling' has been awarded the Lorentz Master thesis award. The award, 3000 euros and a certificate, has been awarded on 25 November at the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij van Wetenschappen (KHMW) society in Haarlem.
In his thesis 'Quantum Digital Cooling', Polla describes a method to reset the quantum bits in a quantum computer to the ground state. This is a hard problem, for which Polla developed a solution largely independently. This solution can probably be tested using the quantum computers under development at Delft Technical University.
'Stefano’s M.Sc. project is impressive in view of the inventiveness and breadth of knowledge he applied to the development of the novel quantum algorithms. This is especially so as throughout this project he needed only minimal supervision, and independently came up with many of the ideas presented in the M.Sc. thesis', wrote theoretical physicist Carlo Beenakker in his recommendation.
Summa cum Laude
The award has been named after Polla's famous predecessor Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. Polla's end grade was a 10, which is quite rare, while his average grade over all subjects was 9.53, which netted him a 'Summa Cum Laude' distinction.
The prize is one of the Young Talent Awards awarded by the the scientific society KHMW. Polla is also the winner of the Hendrik Casimir award. He will now start his PhD in Casimir Research School.