University of Virginia Physics Department to Host 49th Annual Llewellyn G. Hoxton Lecture

April 18th, 2024 — The Department of Physics in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences will host its annual Llewellyn G. Hoxton Lecture on Thursday, April 18th at 6:30p.m. in room 402 of the Chemistry Building, located on McCormick Road. The lecture is intended for a general audience. A reception will take place before the lecture at 5:45pm.

Hoxton Lecturer: Prof. John Preskill
John Preskill is the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech. Preskill received his Ph.D. in physics in 1980 from Harvard and joined the Caltech faculty in 1983. Preskill began his career in particle physics and cosmology, but since the mid-1990s his main research area is quantum information science; he is especially intrigued by the ways our deepening understanding of quantum information and quantum computing can be applied to other fundamental issues in physics, such as the quantum structure of space and time. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a two-time recipient of the Associated Students of Caltech Teaching Award. Preskill has mentored more than 60 Ph.D. students and more than 60 postdoctoral scholars at Caltech.

Abstract for the Lecture:
Quantum Computing and the Entanglement Frontier
The quantum laws governing atoms and other tiny objects seem to defy common sense, and information encoded in quantum systems has weird properties that baffle our feeble human minds. John Preskill will explain why he loves quantum entanglement, the elusive feature making quantum information fundamentally different from information in the macroscopic world. By exploiting quantum entanglement, quantum computers should be able to solve otherwise intractable problems, with far-reaching applications to cryptology, materials, and fundamental physical science. Preskill is less weird than a quantum computer, and easier to understand.

About the Hoxton Lecture Series:
The lecture series is named for Llewellyn G. Hoxton, who was a Professor of Physics in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences and served as department chairman from 1906 to 1948. Hoxton had a gift for conveying new developments in physics to students in his teaching. The annual Hoxton lectures were inaugurated by the Department of Physics in 1971 to bring in lecturers to the department who share Hoxton’s ability for making novel ideas in physics accessible to a broader audience.

Practical Information:
Parking is available in the Central Grounds Parking Garage on Emmett Street and, after 5 p.m., in the Scott Stadium lots.

For information about this free public event, contact Lewis Fassero at 434-924-3781 or
qxf7yf@virginia.edu.