physics

K. Birgitta Whaley

K. Birgitta Whaley is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand K. Birgitta Whaley rather than just read about it. In short: Katherine Birgitta Whaley (born 1956) is a professor of chemistry at the University of California Berkeley and a senior faculty scientist in the Division of Chemical Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. At UC Berkeley, Whaley is the director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center, a member of the executive board for the Center for Quantum Coherent Science, and a member of the Kavli…

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Katherine Birgitta Whaley (born 1956) is a professor of chemistry at the University of California Berkeley and a senior faculty scientist in the Division of Chemical Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. At UC Berkeley, Whaley is the director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center, a member of the executive board for the Center for Quantum Coherent Science, and a member of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Whaley is a member of the Quantum Algorithms Team for Chemical Sciences in the research area of resource-efficient algorithms. Whaley's research team explores topics in the areas of quantum information, quantum computation, macroscopic quantum systems, and quantum control/simulation.

Education, career, and service Whaley received her B.A. from Oxford University (1978) where she was a Nuffield Scholar at St Hilda's from 1974. Whaley has stated that, during her undergraduate studies, she found it hard to decide whether to study chemistry or physics. After graduating, Whaley was a Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University (1978–1979), and went on to receive her M. Sc. (1982) and Ph.D. (1984) from the University of Chicago where she was a student of John C. Light. Her thesis was titled "Topics in molecule-surface scattering and multiphoton excitation dynamics". She went on to be a Golda Meir Fellow at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1984–1985) and a post-doctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University (1985–1986) where she studied with Abraham Nitzan and Robert Gerber. Whaley joined the Chemistry faculty at UC Berkeley in 1986. Her interest in quantum biology was spurred by a series of low-temperature experiments in bacteria performed by Graham Fleming and his team in 2007. Whaley has been recognized by many awards for her scientific contributions in the course of her career. In 2002 she was nominated as a Fellow of American Physical Society by the Division of Computational Physics "for her contributions to theoretical understanding of quantum nanoscale phenomena, especially in superfluid helium droplets, and to control of decoherence in quantum information processing". Whaley served on the advisory board of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2014 to 2017 and was chairperson from 2016 to 2017. From 2017-2018, Whaley was a Simons Distinguished Visiting Scholar/Scientist at KITP. At the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Whaley served on the scientific advisory committee from 2010 to 2013. In the American Physical Society, Whaley served as vice chair, chair elect and then chair for the Division of Chemical Physics from 2009 to 2011. In 2016, Whaley also served as chair of the 2015 Fellowship Committee of the American Physical Society Division of Quantum Information. In the area of editorial roles, Whaley has served on the editorial board of Journal of Chemical Physics (2010–2012) and the Journal of Physical Chemistry (1998–2003). Since 1996, she has served on the editorial board of Chemical Physics. She a current member of the editorial boards of Quantum Information Processing (2005–), European Physical Journal (EPJ) Quantum Technology (2013–), and Advances in Physics X (2014–). In October 2019, Whaley was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Research and notable publications Lidar, D. A.; Chuang, I. L.; Whaley, K. B. (1998-09-21). "Decoherence-Free Subspaces for Quantum Computation". Physical Review Letters. 81 (12): 2594–2597. arXiv:quant-ph/9807004. Bibcode:1998PhRvL..81.2594L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.2594. S2CID 13979882. Whaley, K. B.; Burkard, G.; Kempe, J.; Bacon, D.; DiVincenzo, D. P. (2000). "Universal quantum computation with the exchange interaction". Nature. 408 (6810): 339–342. arXiv:quant-ph/0005116. Bibcode:2000Natur.408..339D. doi:10.1038/35042541. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 11099036. S2CID 4326729. Shenvi, Neil; Kempe, Julia; Whaley, K. Birgitta (2003-05-23). "Quantum random-walk search algorithm". Physical Review A. 67 (5) 052307. arXiv:quant-ph/0210064. Bibcode:2003PhRvA..67e2307S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.67.052307. S2CID 8688989. Bacon, D.; Kempe, J.; Lidar, D. A.; Whaley, K. B. (2000-08-21). "Universal Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation on Decoherence-Free Subspaces". Physical Review Letters. 85 (8): 1758–1761. arXiv:quant-ph/9909058. Bibcode:2000PhRvL..85.1758B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.1758. PMID 10970607. S2CID 14594344. Lidar, D. A.; Bacon, D.; Whaley, K. B. (1999-05-31). "Concatenating Decoherence-Free Subspaces with Quantum Error Correcting Codes". Physical Review Letters. 82 (22): 4556–4559. arXiv:quant-ph/9809081. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..82.4556L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.4556. S2CID 3726305. Whaley, K. Birgitta; Graham R. Fleming; Ishizaki, Akihito; Sarovar, Mohan (2010). "Quantum entanglement in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes". Nature Physics. 6 (6): 462–467. arXiv:0905.3787. Bibcode:2010NatPh...6..462S. doi:10.1038/nphys1652. ISSN 1745-2481. S2CID 5040519. Kempe, J.; Bacon, D.; Lidar, D. A.; Whaley, K. B. (2001-03-20). "Theory of decoherence-free fault-tolerant universal quantum computation". Physical Review A. 63 (4) 042307. arXiv:quant-ph/0004064. Bibcode:2001PhRvA..63d2307K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.63.042307. S2CID 44200695.

Awards Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018, Speciality: Physics, Area: Mathematical and Physical Sciences) Albrecht Lecturer, Cornell University (2015) Quantum Frontiers Distinguished Lecturer, University of Waterloo (2014) Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar (2013–2014) Senior fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2012–2013) Maria Goeppert-Mayer Symposium Lecturer, UC San Diego (2005) Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science Professor, University of California, Berkeley (2002–2003) Fellow, American Physical Society (2002) Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist (1996–1997) A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1991–1993) Bergmann Award (1986)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with K. Birgitta Whaley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what K. Birgitta Whaley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to K. Birgitta Whaley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about K. Birgitta Whaley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of K. Birgitta Whaley

In research: K. Birgitta Whaley appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses K. Birgitta Whaley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: K. Birgitta Whaley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, 20th-century American chemists, 20th-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for K. Birgitta Whaley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study K. Birgitta Whaley in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is K. Birgitta Whaley in simple terms?

Why does K. Birgitta Whaley matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study K. Birgitta Whaley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on K. Birgitta Whaley.