Seth Lloyd is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology. He is the director of the WM Keck Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory at MIT, the director of the Program in Quantum Information at the Institute for Scientific Interchange, and Miller Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. Lloyd earned his A.B. degree in Physics from Harvard University, his Masters of Advanced Study in Mathematics and M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, and his Ph.D. in Physics from Rockefeller University. After postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and at Los Alamos, he joined the MIT faculty in 1994. Professor Lloyd teaches and performs research in quantum information theory and complex systems, by focusing on the role of information in physical and mechanical systems, with an emphasis on quantum mechanical systems, and on the characterization of complex systems, including problems of design and control of such systems. His collaborations resulted in the first experimental demonstrations of quantum algorithms (using NMR), the first demonstration of a quantum optical logic gate, and the first demonstration of superconducting quantum bits, and the first demonstration of coherent quantum feedback control. Recently, he has worked on the role of quantum coherence in living systems, participating in the demonstration that quantum coherence plays a crucial role in guaranteeing the efficiency of energy transport in photosynthesis.
The understanding of the Universe where we live has changed by the introduction of novel ideas based on the laws of the microscopic world. From these principles, novel technologies are under study for entering the everyday reality. Moreover, the interactions of quanta appear to be more fundamental than space and time, changing then the way we describe the dynamics of things and life itself. The colloquium is organized with a talk by Prof. Seth Lloyd and a conversation on the subject of Quantum Information and Computing together with Prof. Gianfranco Bilardi (DEI-University of Padova). The two parts aim to provide the audience with a traditional presentation by the speaker and a dialogue on the change of scenario provided by the Quantum Information.