Toby

Toby Cubitt’s research straddles theoretical physics, mathematics, theoretical computer science, information theory, and much of Europe. He has published papers in the top-tier international journals and conferences across all four of these fields, including highly acclaimed publications in Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Toby holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich. He is Reader (Associate Professor) in Quantum Information at UCL, and head of the Quantum group in the Department of Computer Science there. He holds a University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society, was awarded the 2017 AHP-Birkhauser Prize, and a Whitehead Prize by the London Mathematical Society in 2019 for “outstanding contributions to mathematical physics, in particular the interconnections between quantum information, computational complexity, and many-body physics.”

In 2018, Toby co-founded PhaseCraft together with Dr. Ashley Montanaro and Prof. John Morton: a quantum software startup focused on tackling the biggest challenge of developing practical applications of near-term quantum computers, from developing new underpinning mathematical techniques through to software implementations on real quantum hardware.

When he’s not pursuing research in mathematical physics or developing near-term applications of quantum computers, he can often be found designing science activities for 3-5 year-olds, helped by constructive criticism from his daughters.