Seth Lloyd

Seth Lloyd
Seth Lloyd in 2013
Born (1960-08-02) August 2, 1960 (age 64)
NationalityAmerican
EducationPhillips Academy (1978)
Harvard College (A.B., 1982)
Cambridge University (M.Phil, 1984)
Rockefeller University (Ph.D. physics, 1988)
Known forCoherent information
Continuous-variable quantum information
Dynamical decoupling
Effective complexity
HHL algorithm
Quantum capacity
Quantum illumination
Quantum mechanics of time travel
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Santa Fe Institute
Doctoral advisorHeinz Pagels

Seth Lloyd (born August 2, 1960) is an American quantum information scientist and professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Mechanical Engineering.

He has done seminal work in quantum computation, quantum communication and quantum biology, including proposing the first feasible design for a quantum computer, demonstrating the viability of quantum analog computation, proving quantum analogs of Shannon's theorem, and designing novel methods for quantum error correction and noise reduction.[1]

Biography

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Lloyd was born on August 2, 1960. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1978 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1982. He completed Part III and an MPhil from Cambridge University in 1983 and 1984, while on a Marshall Scholarship.[2] Lloyd completed a PhD in physics at Rockefeller University in 1988, advised by Heinz Pagels.

From 1988 to 1991, Lloyd was a postdoctoral fellow in the High Energy Physics Department at the California Institute of Technology, where he worked with Murray Gell-Mann on applications of information to quantum-mechanical systems. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked at the Center for Nonlinear Systems on quantum computation. In 1994, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Lloyd was an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute.

In 2007 he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society.[3] In 2012 he was given the International Quantum Communication Award.[4]

Work

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In his 2006 book, Programming the Universe, Lloyd contends that the universe itself is one big quantum computer producing what we see around us, and ourselves, as it runs a cosmic program. According to Lloyd, once we understand the laws of physics completely, we will be able to use small-scale quantum computing to understand the universe completely as well.

Lloyd states that we could have the whole universe simulated in a computer in 600 years provided that computational power increases according to Moore's Law.[5] However, Lloyd shows that there are limits to rapid exponential growth in a finite universe, and that it is very unlikely that Moore's Law will be maintained indefinitely.

Lloyd directs the Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory (xQIT) at MIT.[6] He has made contributions to a range of topics, mainly in quantum information science. Among his most cited works are the first proposal for a digital quantum simulator,[7] a general framework for quantum metrology,[8] the first treatment of continuous-variable quantum information,[9] dynamical decoupling as a method of quantum error avoidance,[10] and research on the possible relevance of quantum effects in biological phenomena, especially photosynthesis,[11][12] an effect he has also collaborated to exploit technologically.[13]

With Aram Harrow and Avinatan Hassidim he introduced the HHL algorithm[14] for solving systems of linear equations, and later several quantum machine learning algorithms based on it.[15][16] These algorithms were widely thought to give an exponential speedup relative to the best classical algorithms, until the discovery by Ewin Tang of classical algorithms achieving the same exponential speedup.[17]

Epstein affair

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During July 2019, reports surfaced that MIT and other institutions had accepted funding from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.[18] In the ensuing scandal, Joi Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, resigned from MIT as a result of his association with Epstein.[19][20] Lloyd had been introduced to Epstein at the Edge Billionaires' Dinner in 2004 by his literary agent John Brockman, who had close connections to Epstein.[21] Brockman had also previously introduced Lloyd to Ito in February 2004.[22]

Lloyd's close connections to Epstein drew substantial criticism, having acknowledged funding from Epstein in 19 papers,[23] visiting Epstein's private island,[24] and visiting Epstein in prison after his first conviction.[25] Lloyd also received backlash for discussing his relationship with Epstein during an undergraduate quantum computing course he taught.[26][24]

On August 22, 2019, Lloyd published a letter apologizing for accepting grants totaling $225,000 from Epstein.[25] The controversy at MIT continued despite this, including student protests demanding Lloyd's resignation.[27][26][28] In January 2020, at the request of the MIT Corporation, the law firm Goodwin Procter issued a report[19] on all of MIT's interactions with Epstein. As a result of the report, on January 10, 2020, Lloyd was placed on paid administrative leave.[29]

Lloyd has denied that he misled MIT about the source of the funds he received from Epstein.[30] A subsequent MIT investigation concluded that Lloyd did not attempt to circumvent the MIT vetting process, and Lloyd was allowed to keep his tenured faculty position.[31] However, most members of MIT's fact-finding committee concluded that Lloyd had violated MIT policy by not disclosing certain publicly known information about Epstein's background. Lloyd was then subject to a series of disciplinary actions over the next 5 years, including limits on his ability to solicit donors and to advise students.[31][32]

Personal life

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Lloyd's mother was Susan Lloyd, a history teacher at Phillips Andover.[33][34] His maternal grandparents were Rustin McIntosh, a pediatrician, and Millicent Carey McIntosh, an educational administrator[33]. His father, Robert Lloyd, was an art teacher at Phillips Andover [33][35] His paternal grandparents were teachers of history and dance at Phillips Exeter[35].

Selected publications

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  • Lloyd, Seth (1988). Black Holes, Demons and the Loss of Coherence: How complex systems get information, and what they do with it (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). The Rockefeller University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-07.
  • Lloyd, S. (2000-08-31). "Ultimate physical limits to computation". Nature. 406 (6799): 1047–1054. arXiv:quant-ph/9908043v3. Bibcode:2000Natur.406.1047L. doi:10.1038/35023282. PMID 10984064. S2CID 75923.
  • Lloyd, Seth (2001-10-24). "Computational capacity of the universe". Physical Review Letters. 88 (23): 237901. arXiv:quant-ph/0110141. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.237901. PMID 12059399. S2CID 6341263.
  • Lloyd, S., Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos, Knopf, March 14, 2006, 240 p., ISBN 1-4000-4092-2
  • Lloyd, Seth (2008). "Quantum Mechanics and Emergence". In Abbott, Derek; Davies, Paul C. W.; Pati, Arun K. (eds.). Quantum Aspects of Life. Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1848162532.
  • Movie: In 2022 Lloyd starred in the short film Steeplechase directed by Andrey Kezzyn,[36] which thematizes closed timelike curves, a topic Lloyd has also addressed in his scientific work.[37]

Notes

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  1. ^ MIT News Office (2015-08-31). "Seth Lloyd, leading quantum mechanics expert, appointed Nam P. Suh Professor". Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  2. ^ "OYSI". oysi.org. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  3. ^ "2007 Fellows of the American Physical Society".
  4. ^ "2012 QCMC".
  5. ^ Lloyd, Seth (20 October 2002). "THE COMPUTATIONAL UNIVERSE". Edge.org. Edge Foundation. Retrieved 7 October 2020. 'Every physical system registers information, and just by evolving in time, by doing its thing, it changes that information ...'
  6. ^ "People: xQIT: Leadership". mit.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  7. ^ Seth Lloyd (1996). "Universal Quantum Simulators". Science. 273 (5278): 1073–1078. Bibcode:1996Sci...273.1073L. doi:10.1126/science.273.5278.1073. PMID 8688088.
  8. ^ Giovannetti, Vittorio; Lloyd, Seth; Maccone, Lorenzo (2006). "Quantum Metrology". Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (1): 010401. arXiv:quant-ph/0509179. Bibcode:2006PhRvL..96a0401G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.010401. PMID 16486424. S2CID 32512151.
  9. ^ Lloyd, Seth; Braunstein, Samuel L. (1999). "Quantum Computation over Continuous Variables". Phys. Rev. Lett. 82 (8): 1784–1787. arXiv:quant-ph/9810082. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..82.1784L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.1784. S2CID 921320.
  10. ^ Viola, Lorenza; Knill, Emanuel; Lloyd, Seth (1999). "Dynamical Decoupling of Open Quantum Systems". Phys. Rev. Lett. 82 (12): 2417–2421. arXiv:quant-ph/9809071. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..82.2417V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.2417.
  11. ^ Mohseni, Masoud; Rebentrost, Patrick; Lloyd, Seth; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán (2008). "Environment-assisted quantum walks in photosynthetic energy transfer". J. Chem. Phys. 129 (17): 174106. arXiv:0805.2741. Bibcode:2008JChPh.129q4106M. doi:10.1063/1.3002335. PMID 19045332. S2CID 938902.
  12. ^ Lloyd, Seth (2011). "Quantum coherence in biological systems". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 302 (1): 012037. Bibcode:2011JPhCS.302a2037L. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/302/1/012037. ISSN 1742-6596.
  13. ^ Hewitt, John (2015-10-16). "MIT team genetically engineers a quantum virus for efficient energy transport". extremetech.com.
  14. ^ Harrow, Aram W.; Hassidim, Avinatan; Lloyd, Seth (2009). "Quantum Algorithm for Linear Systems of Equations". Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (15): 150502. arXiv:0811.3171. Bibcode:2009PhRvL.103o0502H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.150502. PMID 19905613.
  15. ^ Lloyd, S.; Mohseni, M.; Rebentrost, P. (2014). "Quantum principal component analysis". Nature Physics. 10 (9): 631–633. arXiv:1307.0401. Bibcode:2014NatPh..10..631L. doi:10.1038/nphys3029.
  16. ^ Rebentrost, Patrick; Mohseni, Masoud; Lloyd, Seth (2014). "Quantum Support Vector Machine for Big Data Classification". Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (13): 130503. arXiv:1307.0471. Bibcode:2014PhRvL.113m0503R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.130503. PMID 25302877. S2CID 5503025.
  17. ^ Tang, Ewin (2021). "Quantum Principal Component Analysis Only Achieves an Exponential Speedup Because of Its State Preparation Assumptions". Physical Review Letters. 127 (6): 060503. arXiv:1811.00414. Bibcode:2021PhRvL.127f0503T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.060503. PMID 34420330. S2CID 236956378.
  18. ^ Aldhous, Peter (2019-07-11). "Jeffrey Epstein Called Himself A "Science Philanthropist" And Donated Millions To These Researchers". Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  19. ^ a b "MIT and Jeffrey Epstein". factfinding2020.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  20. ^ Tracy, Marc; Hsu, Tiffany (7 September 2019). "Director of M.I.T.'s Media Lab Resigns After Taking Money From Jeffrey Epstein". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  21. ^ Chen, Angela (2020-01-10). "Eight revelations from MIT's Jeffrey Epstein report". MIT Technology Review.
  22. ^ "Lunch, the universe and everything with Seth Lloyd". Joi Ito's Web. 2004-02-05.
  23. ^ Tracy, Marc; Hsu, Tiffany (2019-08-23). "Jeffrey Epstein Donations to M.I.T. Will be Focus of University Inquiry". The New York Times.
  24. ^ a b War, MIT Students Against (2019-11-21). "The case of Seth Lloyd is a microcosm of the systemic problems at MIT". The Tech. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  25. ^ a b Lloyd, Seth (2019-08-24). "I am writing to apologize to Jeffrey Epstein's victims". medium.com.
  26. ^ a b Graham, Eleanor. "Seth Lloyd should not be teaching at MIT". The Tech. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  27. ^ Gurley, Lauren Kaori (2019-11-04). "Students Are Demanding MIT Fire a Professor Who Visited Epstein in Prison". Vice. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  28. ^ Tolchin, Rion (2019-12-05). "Seth Lloyd should continue teaching at MIT". The Tech. Cambridge, MA. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  29. ^ MIT News Office (2020-01-10). "MIT releases results of fact-finding on engagements with Jeffrey Epstein". Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  30. ^ Lloyd, Seth (2020-01-16). "What I told MIT about Epstein's donations". medium.com. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  31. ^ a b Stening, Tanner (2020-12-18). "Massachusetts Institute of Technology disciplining professor with ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein". MassLive. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  32. ^ "Decision on Professor Seth Lloyd". MIT Organization Chart. 2020-12-18.
  33. ^ a b c "WEDDINGS; Eve Zimmerman and Seth Lloyd". The New York Times. 1994-05-29. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  34. ^ Lloyd, Robert (2018-09-06). "From Abbot to Andover, an education icon—Susan McIntosh Lloyd". Andover. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  35. ^ a b "Remembering Robert A. Lloyd". Andover. 2024-11-14. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  36. ^ Seth Lloyd at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  37. ^ Lloyd, Seth; Maccone, Lorenzo; Garcia-Patron, Raul; Giovannetti, Vittorio; Shikano, Yutaka; Pirandola, Stefano; Rozema, Lee A.; Darabi, Ardavan; Soudagar, Yasaman; Shalm, Lynden K.; Steinberg, Aephraim M. (2011). "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency". Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (4): 040403. arXiv:1005.2219. Bibcode:2011PhRvL.106d0403L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.040403. PMID 21405310. S2CID 18442086.
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