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Elham Kashefi

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Elham Kashefi
EducationAboureihan High School
Alma materSharif University of Technology (BSc, MSc)
Imperial College London (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsQuantum cloud
Quantum cryptography[1]
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh
University of Oxford
Sorbonne University
ThesisComplexity Analysis and Semantics for Quantum Computation (2003)
Doctoral advisorVlatko Vedral[2]
Steffen van Bakel[2]
Websitewww.inf.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/Elham_Kashefi.html

Elham Kashefi (Persian: الهام کاشفی) is a Professor of Computer Science and Personal Chair in quantum computing at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, and a Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) researcher at the Sorbonne University.[3] She is known as one of the inventors of blind quantum computing.[4] Her work has included contributions to quantum cryptography, verification of quantum computing, and cloud quantum computing.[1][5]

Early life and education

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Kashefi went to school at the Aboureihan High School in Tehran. She studied applied mathematics at Sharif University of Technology earning her bachelor's degree at Sharif University of Technology in 1996 and her master's degree in 1998. Kashefi was a doctoral student at Imperial College London, and completed her PhD in 2003 supervised by Vlatko Vedral and Steffen van Bakel.[2][6][7]

Career and research

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After completing her PhD Kashefi was selected as a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford. Here she worked on the foundational structures of quantum computation.[8] She was a research fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing during 2005, before moving to Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting scientist.[8] Here she worked on depth complexity and parallel computing.[8] Kashefi was appointed a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in 2007.[8] She holds an established career fellowship in quantum computing from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC),[9][10] a Personal Chair at the University of Edinburgh, and is a Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) researcher at the Sorbonne University.[3]

Much of her research considers quantum cryptography and verification of quantum protocols. Her research looks to validate and verify quantum technologies, from computers to simulators to gadgets.[9][11] Notably she was one of the originators of Universal Blind Computing[12] which was the first protocol to permit privacy protection during general quantum computations.[13][14] She believes that to achieve secure communications in a data-dependent society will require a combination of classical cryptography and quantum cryptography.[15]

Kashefi has also contributed to the development of quantum cloud computing.[16] In 2017 she co-founded VeriQloud, a software provider for quantum networks.[17] Working with members of the quantum computing community, Kashefi co-founded the national quantum networks QUantum OXford Imperial College (QuOxIC) and Quantum Information Scotland Network (QUISCO).[18][19] These hubs combine physicists and computer scientists to work together on quantum science.[14]

Awards and honours

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In 2024 Kashefi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).[20] She had previously been elected to the Young Academy of Scotland in 2011.

Selected publications

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Her publications[1][5] include;

  • Universal blind quantum computation[12]
  • Demonstration of Blind Quantum Computing[13]
  • The measurement calculus[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Elham Kashefi publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ a b c Elham Kashefi at the Mathematics Genealogy Project Edit this at Wikidata
  3. ^ a b "Professor Elham Kashefi - Networks of evidence and expertise for public policy". csap.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  4. ^ "Podcast with David Shaw, Chief Analyst at Global Quantum Intelligence". Quantum computing Report. Global Quantum Intelligence, LLC. 2024-07-30. Retrieved 2024-09-30. A very strong crossover into the world of quantum communications and distributed quantum networks. It's led by Elham Kashefi and she was one of the inventors of blind quantum computing, which is a very important...application between..early quantum computing and early quantum security.
  5. ^ a b Elham Kashefi at DBLP Bibliography Server Edit this at Wikidata
  6. ^ Kashefi, Elham (2003). Complexity analysis and semantics for quantum computation. imperial.ac.uk (PhD thesis). Imperial College London. hdl:10044/1/11786. OCLC 1001162468. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.409345. Free access icon
  7. ^ "Elham Kashefi - Edinburgh Research Explorer". research.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  8. ^ a b c d "Informatics News: Elham Kashefi". homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  9. ^ a b "EPSRC's Fellows to lead UK's Quantum Tech quest - EPSRC website". epsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  10. ^ Anon (2019). "UK Quantum Technology Hub: NQIT - Networked Quantum Information Technologies". gow.epsrc.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  11. ^ Kashefi, Elham. "Verification of Quantum Technology". gtr.ukri.org. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  12. ^ a b Broadbent, Anne; Fitzsimons, Joseph; Kashefi, Elham (2009). "Universal Blind Quantum Computation". 2009 50th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science. pp. 517–526. arXiv:0807.4154. doi:10.1109/FOCS.2009.36. ISBN 978-1-4244-5116-6. S2CID 650251. Closed access icon
  13. ^ a b Barz, Stephanie; Kashefi, Elham; Broadbent, Anne; Fitzimoons, Joseph; Zeilinger, Anton; Walther, Philip (2012). "Demonstration of Blind Quantum Computing". Science. 335 (6066): 303–308. arXiv:1110.1381. Bibcode:2012Sci...335..303B. doi:10.1126/science.1214707. PMID 22267806. S2CID 24363424. Closed access icon
  14. ^ a b "Elham Kashefi". sites.eca.ed.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  15. ^ Diamanti, Eleni; Kashefi, Elham (2017). "Best of both worlds" (PDF). Nature Physics. 13 (1): 3–4. Bibcode:2017NatPh..13....3D. doi:10.1038/nphys3972. hdl:20.500.11820/7590bbef-dd75-4e6c-bd86-77257ce82cd4. ISSN 1745-2481. S2CID 126105653. Closed access icon
  16. ^ "Elham Kashefi". simons.berkeley.edu. Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  17. ^ "VeriQloud". veriqloud.com. Retrieved 2019-08-31.[permanent dead link]
  18. ^ "Professor Elham Kashefi". nqit.ox.ac.uk. NQIT. Archived from the original on 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  19. ^ "University of Edinburgh". quisco.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  20. ^ "Professor Elham Kashefi". Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  21. ^ Danos, Vincent; Kashefi, Elham; Panangaden, Prakash (2007). "The measurement calculus". Journal of the ACM. 54 (2): 8–es. doi:10.1145/1219092.1219096. hdl:20.500.11820/7cdabc14-a60b-428c-88df-a444c5ef4cd6. S2CID 5851623. Closed access icon