John Preskill
John
D. MacArthur Professor of Theoretical Physics
Division of Physics, Mathematics, and
Astronomy
California Institute of Technology
Curriculum
Vitae and publication list.
Home Page for
Physics 219, a course on quantum computation.
The Institute
for Quantum Information.
The Center for
the Physics of Information.
The
Caltech Particle Theory Home Page
My Students:
Where are they now?
I am a theoretical
physicist. Topics I have worked on in the past include the connections between
particle physics and cosmology, properties of topological defects, nonperturbative phenomena in quantum field theory, and
quantum aspects of the early universe and of black
holes . For several years, my central interest has been in the theory
of quantum
information, quantum computing, and quantum error correction.
Broadly speaking, quantum
information science addresses how the principles of quantum physics can be
harnessed to improve the acquisition, transmission, and processing of
information. A quantum computer would be a new type of machine that, by
exploiting the unusual quantum properties of information, could perform certain
types of calculations far more efficiently than any foreseeable classical
computer. I'm particularly interested in developing new schemes for protecting
intricate quantum systems from decoherence and other
sources of error.
For further information
about quantum computation, and other useful links, see the Physics 219 home
page.
I am Director of the Institute for Quantum Information (IQI), which is part of the initiative in Information Technology Research launched by the National Science Foundation. I also direct the Center for the Physics of Information (CPI), part of Caltech’s initiative in Information Science and Technology (IST).
Contact Information:
Caltech 452-48
email: preskill@theory.caltech.edu
Office: 626-395-6691
Fax: 626-568-8473
Papers and Talks: 
Some of my
publications can be found an the electronic ArXiv. Other
useful lists of my publications can be found on google scholar and citebase. Here is a complete
publication list , with links to articles written after 1991.
With some colleagues, I
prepared a report
on quantum information science for the National Science Foundation. A pdf
version is also available.
Below are a few papers that
are not readily available elsewhere on the Internet. Some are transcripts (in
PostScript) of informal talks I have given. If your computer is not configured
to view PostScript, you can try this
site .
- A colloquium on black
holes and the information paradox. -- 21 November 1994 (ps format). Also: pdf
- A colloquium on the
non-abelian Aharonov-Bohm
effect. --
- Foreword
to The Feynman Lectures on Gravitation (with Kip Thorne) -- May 1995,
27 pages (ps format)
- A colloquium on quantum
computation . --
- A talk on quantum
error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computation. --
- A public lecture about quantum
information and quantum computation. --
- And a similar talk from Proceedings
of the IEEE Aerospace Conference. --
- A paper on topological
quantum computation (with Walt Ogburn),
based on a talk at the 1st Nasa International
Conference on Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications -- 18 February
1998 (ps format), and published in Lecture
Notes in Computer Science 1509: 341-356 (1999) (pdf format)
- A talk on the
future of quantum information theory. --
- A talk on the
future of quantum information science. --
- A "News and Views" piece about robust
solutions to hard problems, published in Nature 391, 631-632
(1998) (pdf format)
- A "News and Views" piece about quantum
software , published in Nature 402, 357-358 (1999) (pdf format)
- My commentary
on the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics –
Here are links to the slides for
some talks I have given. In some cases, the audio for the talk is also
available.
- A talk on topological
quantum memory , delivered at the ITP Conference on Quantum Information.
--
- A talk on quantum
computation and the future of physics, delivered at the Berkeley
Workshop on Theory of Computation and the Sciences. –
- A talk on security
of quantum key distribution , delivered at QIP 2003. –
- A talk on how more is
different, delivered at the KITP conference on glassy states.
–
- A talk on superselection rules and quantum protocols,
delivered at the Gordon Research Conference on Quantum Information
Science. –
- A talk on topological
quantum computing, delivered at the KITP conference on exotic
order. –
- A talk on the
cost of quantum fault tolerance, delivered at QIP 2005 – 14 January 2005 (pdf)
- A colloquium on quantum
key distribution,
- A talk on topological
quantum computation,
- A “pedagogical” talk on fault-tolerant
quantum computation, KITP – 30 March 2006 (html and audio)
- A public
lecture on quantum
information science, KITP – 3 May 2006 (html and audio)
- A talk on black holes as
mirrors, KITP – 27
September 2007 (audio and video)
- A talk on fault-tolerant
quantum computation against realistic noise, delivered at QEC07
– 19 December 2007 (pdf)
Teaching: 
Information about Physics
219 , a course about quantum information and computation.
Information about Physics
230 , a course about elementary particle theory.
Information about Physics 106 , a
course about classical mechanics.
Information about Physics 12c , a course
about statistical mechanics.
Betting: 
I was once
briefly almost famous for winning
a bet . Alas, this only encouraged me to make more
bets. Details are on the black hole bets
page .
Update (
Other Stuff:
- Ten
Physics Problems for the Next Millennium (selected at Strings 2000)
- Millennium Prize Problems in
Mathematics (from the Clay Mathematics Institute)
- Physics Colloquium Poems: Erik
Winfree , Craig
Hogan , Hirosi Ooguri , John
Schwarz, Quantum
Cryptography, Spin
is In,
arXiv.org,
Lene Hau , Let’s
Play CA! , On
Quantum Compression, Leon
Balents
- Baseball: ESPN Sportszone
- A-hats
Team Song (Caltech
quantum optics softball team)
- My Dog
(photo and
poem)
- My New Dog (photo)
- CPI
(poem)