PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Lorenzo Maccone

Lorenzo Maccone is a theoretical physicist at the University of Pavia who works on quantum information, quantum measurement and quantum computation. With Vittorio Giovannetti and Seth Lloyd, he wrote the 2004 Science review on beating the standard quantum limit, the 2008 Physical Review Letters paper on quantum random access memory and the 2011 Nature Photonics review "Advances in Quantum Metrology". In 2009, while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he published a quantum argument on the arrow of time in Physical Review Letters, and in 2015 he coauthored "Quantum time" in Physical Review D. He gave the Peter Grünberg Colloquium on quantum metrology at Forschungszentrum Jülich in April 2024. He is an associate professor at the University of Pavia, where he has worked since October 2010, and he works with the SQMS Center at Fermilab on quantum sensing for axion dark matter searches, the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum computation.

Born
1972

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2004

    Beating the standard quantum limit

    With Vittorio Giovannetti and Seth Lloyd, he publishes the review "Quantum-enhanced measurements: beating the standard quantum limit" in Science in 2004. It shows that the shot noise limit and the standard quantum limit can be beaten with quantum strategies such as squeezing and entanglement.

  2. 2008

    Quantum random access memory

    He coauthors "Quantum random access memory" with Giovannetti and Lloyd, published in Physical Review Letters in 2008. The architecture lets n qubits address any quantum superposition of N memory cells and cuts the switches thrown per memory call to O(log N), exponentially fewer than conventional designs.

  3. 2009

    A quantum arrow of time

    In 2009, while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he publishes "Quantum Solution to the Arrow-of-Time Dilemma" in Physical Review Letters. He argues that entropy-decreasing events occur all the time and that quantum mechanics erases an observer's memory of them.

  4. 2011

    Advances in quantum metrology

    In 2011, he writes the review "Advances in Quantum Metrology" with Giovannetti and Lloyd, published in Nature Photonics. It covers developments in the theory, new experiments, and the way noise and experimental imperfections enter the analysis.

  5. 2015

    Quantum time in Physical Review D

    In 2015, he coauthors "Quantum time" in Physical Review D with Giovannetti and Lloyd.

  6. April 2024

    Quantum metrology colloquium at Jülich

    In April 2024, he gives the Peter Grünberg Colloquium at Forschungszentrum Jülich on quantum metrology. The talk presents the field as one of the pillars of quantum technologies, showing how entanglement and squeezing increase measurement precision.

  7. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at Pavia

    He is a theoretical physicist and an associate professor at the University of Pavia, where he has worked since October 2010. He is a member of the Physics and Sensing and the Algorithms focus area teams of the SQMS Center at Fermilab. His work covers quantum information theory, the quantum theory of measurement, quantum sensing for axion dark matter searches, the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum computation.

Career

  1. Since 2010University of PaviaAssociate Professor
  2. NowFermi Research AllianceMember

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 University of Pavia. 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. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Massachusetts 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.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Lorenzo Maccone yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Quantum-enhanced measurements: beating the standard quantum limit arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Quantum random access memory arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. The Arrow of Time: Still a Puzzle | Discover Magazine discovermagazine.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Is Quantum Mechanics Messing with Your Memory? | 3 Quarks Daily 3quarksdaily.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Advances in Quantum Metrology arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Lorenzo Maccone - Google Scholar scholar.google.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Peter Grünberg Colloquium: Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Maccone, Università degli Studi di Pavia & Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pavia, Italy fzj.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Lorenzo Maccone - Wikidata wikidata.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Lorenzo Maccone – QUit wordpress.qubit.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Lorenzo Maccone – SQMS Center sqmscenter.fnal.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.