PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

John Preskill

Also known as John P. Preskill

John Preskill is a theoretical physicist at Caltech whose work on quantum information connects quantum computing with machine learning. After a Harvard Ph.D. under Steven Weinberg in 1980, he joined the Caltech faculty in 1983 and turned from particle physics and cosmology to quantum computation in the mid-1990s. He founded Caltech's Institute for Quantum Information in 2000, coined the term quantum supremacy in a 2012 paper, and described the NISQ era in a 2018 paper. With Hsin-Yuan Huang and Richard Kueng, he introduced classical shadows in 2020, and a 2022 Science paper he coauthored proved that classical machine learning algorithms can efficiently predict ground state properties of gapped Hamiltonians. He received the 2024 John Stewart Bell Prize and the 2025 Academic Pioneer in Quantum Award, and he is the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech and director of its Institute for Quantum Information and Matter.

Born
1953
Badges

Timeline

  1. 1953–1983

    A Harvard PhD under Weinberg

    He is born in 1953 in Highland Park, Illinois, earns an A.B. in physics at Princeton in 1975, and completes a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard in 1980 as a student of Steven Weinberg. After serving as a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, he joins the Caltech faculty in 1983 as an associate professor.

  2. 1990s

    Fault-tolerant quantum computing theory

    He becomes a full professor at Caltech in 1990. From the mid-1990s, his research turns from particle physics, cosmology and gravitation to quantum computation, and with Daniel Gottesman and others he develops the theory of fault-tolerant quantum computing and proves the quantum accuracy threshold theorem. Lecture notes from his Caltech course on quantum computation are available online from 1997.

  3. 2000–2014

    Founding Caltech's quantum institute

    He founds the Institute for Quantum Information at Caltech in 2000 and directs it until 2014. In 2011 it becomes part of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), an NSF Physics Frontiers Center. The National Academy of Sciences elects him a member in 2014.

  4. 2012–2018

    Quantum supremacy and NISQ

    In a 2012 paper he coins the term quantum supremacy. His 2018 paper "Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond", published in Quantum, describes noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices with 50 to 100 qubits that may surpass classical digital computers on some tasks while gate noise limits the size of the circuits they can run.

  5. 2020–2022

    Machine learning for quantum systems

    With Hsin-Yuan Huang and Richard Kueng, he introduces classical shadows in a 2020 Nature Physics paper: compact classical descriptions of a quantum state from which order log M measurements predict M different properties. A 2022 Science paper he coauthors, "Provably efficient machine learning for quantum many-body problems", proves that classical machine learning algorithms can efficiently predict ground state properties of gapped Hamiltonians. He is also a coauthor of "Quantum advantage in learning from experiments", published in Science in 2022, which proves that quantum machines can learn from exponentially fewer experiments than conventional experiments require and demonstrates the advantage with up to 40 superconducting qubits.

  6. 2020–2026

    Amazon Scholar at AWS

    In June 2020, Amazon Web Services announces that he is joining its quantum computing research effort as an Amazon Scholar at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing, which is on the Caltech campus. The appointment runs from 2020 to 2026.

  7. 2024–2025

    Bell Prize and Academic Pioneer

    He receives the 2024 John Stewart Bell Prize for Research on Fundamental Issues in Quantum Mechanics and Their Applications, announced by the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control for developments at the interface of efficient learning and processing of quantum information in quantum computation. In 2025 the Quantum World Congress gives him its Academic Pioneer in Quantum Award.

  8. As of October 2026

    Feynman Professor and IQIM director

    He holds the Richard P. Feynman Professorship of Theoretical Physics at Caltech from 2010, the Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair from 2017, and the directorship of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter from 2014. In March 2026, he is a senior author of a Caltech and Oratomic report whose new error-correction architecture indicates that a fully realized quantum computer could be built with as few as 10,000 to 20,000 qubits.

Career

  1. Since 1983California Institute of TechnologyAssociate Professor, Full Professor
  2. 2020–2026AmazonAmazon Scholar
  3. Harvard UniversityJunior Fellow

Education

  1. 1980Harvard UniversityPh.D. in physics
  2. 1975Princeton UniversityA.B. in physics

From the biography.

  1. 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes John Preskill. We estimate that 16% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a company; 29% of moves starting at a university went to a company, and 76% ended the university role.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes California Institute of Technology. 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.
  3. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes California Institute of Technology. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  4. Among employers with 30+ full-time cases, OpenAI leads primary technical role H-1B pay at $310,000, and Amazon, Google and Microsoft file 57% of all casesIncludes Amazon. Across 440,669 certified US H-1B filings from 44 employers (FY2020–FY2026), OpenAI leads primary technical role base pay at $310,000 and xAI leads overall base pay at $290,000.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. John Preskill — Biographical Sketch preskill.caltech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. John Preskill - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. John P. Preskill - Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy pma.caltech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Caltech's Pioneering Quantum Hub Celebrates 25 Years caltech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond (arXiv:1801.00862) arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Predicting Many Properties of a Quantum System from Very Few Measurements (arXiv:2002.08953) arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Provably efficient machine learning for quantum many-body problems (arXiv:2106.12627) arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Quantum advantage in learning from experiments (arXiv:2112.00778) arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Amazon Scholar John Preskill on the AWS quantum computing effort amazon.science. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. John Preskill announced as 2024 Bell Prize Winner cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. John Preskill Honored by Quantum World Congress physics.caltech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  12. Caltech Team Finds Useful Quantum Computers Could Be Built with as Few as 10,000 Qubits caltech.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.