When computational chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik told his business partner Christopher Savoie that he had an idea for a quantum computing software company, Savoie was skeptical, he admits. This was 2017, and quantum computing was (and arguably still is) in its infancy. Savoie asked Aspuru-Guzik what a state-of-the-art quantum computer could do. Not much more than a pocket calculator, Aspuru-Guzik told him. But the two had worked together successfully at Kyulux on machine-learning methods to advance organic light-emitting diode technology, so Savoie visited Aspuru-Guzik’s lab, then at Harvard University. By the time they’d finished lunch, Savoie says, he was convinced that Aspuru-Guzik and his collaborators—Yudong Cao, Peter Johnson, Jonathan P. Olson, and Jhonathan Romero Fontalvo—were on to something. By the afternoon, Aspuru-Guzik was calling quantum computing researchers to introduce Savoie as the new CEO of Zapata Computing. Quantum computing proponents have made huge promises, especially in chemistry. A traditional computer represents
When computational chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik told his business partner Christopher Savoie that he had an idea for a quantum computing software company, Savoie was skeptical, he admits. This was 2017, and quantum computing was (and arguably still is) in its infancy. Savoie asked Aspuru-Guzik what a state-of-the-art quantum computer could do. Not much more than a pocket calculator, Aspuru-Guzik told him. But the two had worked together successfully at Kyulux on machine-learning methods to advance organic light-emitting diode technology, so Savoie visited Aspuru-Guzik’s lab, then at Harvard University. By the time they’d finished lunch, Savoie says, he was convinced that Aspuru-Guzik and his collaborators—Yudong Cao, Peter Johnson, Jonathan P. Olson, and Jhonathan Romero Fontalvo—were on to something. By the afternoon, Aspuru-Guzik was calling quantum computing researchers to introduce Savoie as the new CEO of Zapata Computing. Quantum computing proponents have made huge promises, especially in chemistry. A traditional computer represents
Commercial use of quantum computing technology is in our future, and the CEO of one quantum technology company is positioning his company to deliver a first-mover advantage for enterprises. However, the focus is on satisfying customers today, so he is—without pause—preparing customers to leverage the most advanced quantum technology today and into the future. Christopher Savoie, a serial entrepreneur and a founder of Zapata Computing, recently discussed his views on innovation processes, forming companies around emergent technologies, and how he is building a business within the nascent quantum computing industry.
In an IBM lab in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., a circuit board sits at the bottom of a large tub cooled to temperatures colder than those of outer space. Shiny, solderlike zigzags of niobium cover the board, connecting 16 unusual computing elements. These elements, called quantum bits, or qubits, may form the basis of future computers that will solve problems by taking advantage of quantum mechanics. So far, quantum computers like IBM’s 16-qubit system can solve only simple problems, all of them easy enough to be handled by traditional computers. This spring, IBM set a quantum-computing record by modeling beryllium hydride—which contains a mere three atoms (Nature 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nature23879). Earlier prototypes modeled hydrogen and factored the number 15. As quantum computers become more sophisticated, they will allow chemists to solve problems that are intractable on today’s desktops and even supercomputers. In fact, physicists expect that chemistry simulations will be quantum
Alán Aspuru-Guzik’s nearly 2 decades of research can’t be narrowed down to a single scientific field. But the flurry of ideas coming from his lab fits, if precariously, under a grander theme: expansion. “I’m very interested in exploring life,” he says. “When there are opportunities that expand my horizon, I will take them.” For Aspuru-Guzik, a professor of chemistry and computer science at the University of Toronto, the possibilities of the unknown are what have driven his laboratory to the interfaces of quantum computing, machine learning, and chemistry. Aspuru-Guzik blurs the lines between everything: theoretical and experimental chemistry, art and science, and creativity and stiffness. “For Alán, disciplines are artificial,” says Joel Yuen-Zhou, who received his PhD from Aspuru- Guzik’s lab in 2012 and now serves as an associate professor of chemistry at the University of California San Diego. Aspuru-Guzik’s interests span art, literature, music, and science, which made him
Over the last century, ingenious physical and mathematical insights paired with rapidly advancing technology have allowed the field of quantum chemistry to advance dramatically. However, efficient methods for the exact simulation of quantum systems on classical computers do not exist. The present paper reports an extension of one of the authors’ previous work [Aspuru-Guzik et al., Science 309 p. 1704, (2005)] where it was shown that the chemical Hamiltonian can be efficiently simulated using a quantum computer. In particular, we report in detail how a set of molecular integrals can be used to create a quantum circuit that allows the energy of a molecular system with fixed nuclear geometry to be extracted using the phase estimation algorithm proposed by Abrams and Lloyd [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83 p. 5165, (1999)]. We extend several known results related to this idea and present numerical examples of the state preparation procedure required in the algorithm. With future quantum devices in mind, we provide a complete example using the Hydrogen molecule, of how a chemical Hamiltonian can be simulated using a quantum computer. Some of the results we present here represent an extension of our recent collaboration appearing in B. P. Lanyon et al. [Nature Chem., advance online publication, doi: 10.1038/nchem.483 (2010)].