John A. Smolin
John Smolin is a quantum information researcher whose work brings active machine learning to quantum-system identification. He earned a physics degree at MIT, helped Charles Bennett build IBM's first quantum cryptography device in 1989, and completed a physics doctorate at UCLA in 1996. His research linked entanglement with error correction and explored quantum learning under noise. As of October 2026, he is an IBM researcher.
Timeline
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1989
The first quantum cryptography device
He earns an S.B. in physics from MIT and, with Charles H. Bennett, builds the first quantum cryptography device at IBM in 1989.
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1996
A PhD and quantum error correction
He completes a physics PhD at UCLA in 1996. With Charles H. Bennett, David DiVincenzo, and William K. Wootters, he shows how entanglement purification and quantum error-correcting codes protect quantum states from the environment.
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1999
Quantum nonlocality without entanglement
In 1999, he and seven coauthors show that some orthogonal product states cannot be distinguished by local operations and classical communication.
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By 2013
Research staff member at IBM
By 2013, he is a Research Staff Member at IBM and an APS Fellow.
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2015
Quantum learning under noise
With Andrew Cross and Graeme Smith, he studies parity-function learning with quantum queries in 2015. Their result keeps quantum learning efficient under noise, even when the classical task is believed intractable.
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2023–2026
Active learning and entanglement distillation
In 2023, he and six coauthors test an active machine-learning algorithm for quantum-system identification through Hamiltonian estimation on four IBM Quantum devices. In 2026, he and collaborators improve entanglement-distillation lower bounds for amplitude-damping and depolarizing channels.
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As of October 2026
IBM researcher
As of October 2026, he is an IBM researcher.
Sources and credits
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- Physics - John Smolin
- The early days of experimental quantum cryptography
- Mixed-state entanglement and quantum error correction
- Quantum nonlocality without entanglement
- Quantum learning robust to noise - APS March Meeting 2015 PostDeadline
- Active learning of quantum system Hamiltonians yields query advantage
- Adaptive Channel Reshaping for Improved Entanglement Distillation
- IBM Fellow and Quantum Pioneer Charles H. Bennett Receives A.M. Turing Award, Computing’s Highest Honor