PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fabio Sciarrino

Fabio Sciarrino is a physicist at Sapienza University of Rome whose experiments in integrated quantum photonics extend into machine learning. After a physics degree in Naples, he completed a PhD at Sapienza under Francesco De Martini, won an ERC Starting Grant in 2012, and coauthored a 2013 Nature Photonics paper on boson sampling in an integrated interferometer. From 2018, his machine-learning work included the MAC QUANTUM project, an ERC Advanced Grant for QU-BOSS in the 2019 round, a photonic quantum extreme learning machine in 2024, and a photonic quantum convolutional neural network in 2025. He is Full Professor at Sapienza's Physics Department, principal investigator of its Quantum Information Lab, and Sapienza's Pro-Rector for international research policy.

Born
1987

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. By 2014

    A PhD under De Martini

    After a physics degree in Naples, he moves to Rome for a PhD in the Physics Department of La Sapienza under Francesco De Martini. Postdoctoral fellowships lead to a recruitment as assistant professor in the same department, and by 2014 he is a researcher there working on quantum information.

  2. 2012–2015

    ERC grants and PICQUE network

    In 2012, he wins an ERC Starting Grant (Consolidator) for the project "3D Quantum Integrated Optical Simulation" on integrated quantum photonics. From September 2013, he coordinates PICQUE, a Marie Curie training network on integrated quantum photonics with 18 partners, and in 2015 he adds an ERC Proof of Concept grant, 3D-COUNT.

  3. 2013

    Boson sampling on a chip

    He is one of ten authors of "Experimental boson sampling in arbitrary integrated photonic circuits", published in Nature Photonics in 2013. The experiment uses a 5-mode integrated interferometer built with three-dimensional manufacturing techniques, controls 25 independent parameters, and confirms the quantum predictions for three-photon interference.

  4. 2018–2020

    Machine learning on photonic chips

    In 2018, he proposes MAC QUANTUM (MAChine learning via hybrid integrated QUANTUM photonics), a Sapienza project that sets out to connect quantum information and machine learning in experiments. In May 2020, he coauthors a paper with Taira Giordani, Alessia Suprano and others that uses convolutional neural networks and principal component analysis to classify vector vortex beams.

  5. 2019

    The QU-BOSS Advanced Grant

    In the 2019 round of ERC Advanced Grants, he wins funding for QU-BOSS, a boson sampling project that uses non-linearities and integrated photonics to push toward quantum advantage, with Sapienza as host. The project has a total budget of €2,875,000.

  6. 2024

    A photonic quantum extreme learning machine

    In 2024, Physical Review Letters publishes "Experimental property reconstruction in a photonic quantum extreme learning machine", with Alessia Suprano as first author and him among the authors. A machine-learning model trained on 300 photons reconstructs their initial polarization states from measurements of orbital angular momentum.

  7. 2025

    A photonic quantum convolutional network

    In January 2025, Nature Communications publishes a paper he coauthors that adds adaptivity via post-selection to a Boson Sampling platform built on programmable photonic circuits, as a route to quantum machine learning. By November 2025, a team he leads has built a modular photonic quantum convolutional neural network from single photons of a quantum-dot source and two integrated processors, reaching classification accuracy above 92 percent.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and pro-rector at Sapienza

    He is Full Professor in the Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome, principal investigator of its Quantum Information Lab, and Sapienza's Pro-Rector for international research policy. A 2026 paper with Denis Stanev and Nicolò Spagnolo covers training continuously coupled reconfigurable photonic chips with quantum machine learning.

Career

  1. NowSapienza University of RomeAssistant Professor

Education

  1. Sapienza University of RomePhD

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Sapienza University of Rome. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Sapienza University of Rome. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Sapienza University of Rome. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Sapienza University of Rome. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.

Sources and credits

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  1. Italian Life in Quantum | Science in the net scienceonthenet.eu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. FABIO SCIARRINO | PHYSICS (Sapienza PhD in Physics) phd.uniroma1.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. [1212.2783] Experimental boson sampling in arbitrary integrated photonic circuits arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Ricerc@Sapienza: MAChine learning via hybrid integrated QUANTUM photonics research.uniroma1.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. [2005.07949] Machine learning-based classification of vector vortex beams arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Sapienza ranked first among Italian universities for ERC Advanced Grants 2019 uniroma1.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Physics - Quantum Machine Learning Goes Photonic physics.aps.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. [2308.04543] Experimental property-reconstruction in a photonic quantum extreme learning machine arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Quantum machine learning with Adaptive Boson Sampling via post-selection | Nature Communications nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Rome-led group progresses toward practical photonic quantum neural networks | optics.org optics.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. Prorettori e delegati | Sapienza Università di Roma uniroma1.it. Checked 21 October 2026.