Robert Raussendorf

Also known as Robert Raußendorf

Robert Raussendorf is a theoretical physicist who co-invented measurement-based quantum computation and has applied it to quantum machine learning. While a doctoral student at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, they published "A One-Way Quantum Computer" with Hans Briegel in 2001 and earned their PhD in 2003. After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Perimeter Institute, they were a professor at the University of British Columbia from 2008 to 2023 and received the 2021 CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. In 2007, they published fault-tolerant schemes for cluster-state computation, and in 2026 Physical Review A published their paper with Luis Mantilla Calderón, Polina Feldmann and Dmytro Bondarenko that proposed a quantum neural network built from measurement-based neurons. They are a Humboldt Professor at Leibniz University Hannover, where they have worked since 2023.

Now at: Leibniz University Hannover
Born: 1973

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

2001–2003

The one-way quantum computer

Born in Germany in 1973, they are a doctoral student at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich when they and Hans Briegel publish "A One-Way Quantum Computer" in Physical Review Letters in 2001. With Briegel, they co-invent measurement-based quantum computation, in which a cluster state of entangled qubits supplies the entire resource and one-particle measurements write, process and read out the information. In 2003, they earn their PhD and publish "Measurement-based quantum computation on cluster states" with Briegel.
2007

Fault tolerance on cluster states

In 2007, they publish with Jim Harrington a fault-tolerant scheme for a local architecture in two spatial dimensions, with an error threshold of 0.75% for each error source. They also describe, with Harrington and Kovid Goyal, a fault-tolerant one-way quantum computer on a three-dimensional cluster state, in which topologically protected quantum gates come from the choice of boundary conditions on the cluster.
2008–2023

Professor at UBC

After postdoctoral positions at Caltech and Perimeter Institute, the theoretical physicist works as a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from 2008 to 2023. They become a full professor in 2021 and lead the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute's Grand Challenge on noisy intermediate-scale quantum computing and quantum materials. At UBC they co-invent a patent for a modular quantum computer architecture with Chris Monroe and Jungsang Kim at IonQ.
2009

A Sloan Research Fellowship

They receive a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2009.
2019

A computationally universal phase

In 2019, Physical Review Letters publishes their paper "A computationally universal phase of quantum matter," written with Cihan Okay, Dong-Sheng Wang, David T. Stephen and Hendrik Poulsen Nautrup. It gives the first example of a symmetry-protected quantum phase with universal computational power: in two spatial dimensions, the ground state throughout the phase is a universal resource for measurement-based quantum computation.
2020–2021

Influential paper and CAP-CRM Prize

In 2020, Physical Review A lists their 2003 paper with Hans Briegel, "Measurement-based quantum computation on cluster states," among its 26 most influential papers of the past half-century. In 2021, the Canadian Association of Physicists and the Centre de recherches mathématiques award them the CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics for contributions to the theory of quantum computing, including work on measurement-based computing, fault-tolerant computing and computationally universal quantum phases of matter.
2022–2023

A Humboldt Professorship

In 2022, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards them a Humboldt Professorship, described as Germany's highest-endowed research prize and worth 3.5 million euros over five years for theoretical researchers. In 2023, they begin research and teaching at Leibniz University Hannover's Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and its Institute of Theoretical Physics. The university expects them to play a key role in the Quantum Valley Lower Saxony project to develop the first working quantum computer.
2026

Measurement-based quantum machine learning

In 2026, Physical Review A publishes "Measurement-based quantum machine learning," written with Luis Mantilla Calderón, Polina Feldmann and Dmytro Bondarenko. The paper proposes the multiple-triangle ansatz (MuTA), a universal quantum neural network assembled from neurons based on measurement-based quantum computation, and shows numerically that it can learn a universal set of gates in the presence of noise and classify classical data. As a professor of physics at Leibniz University Hannover, they also lecture at the Technion in 2026 on fault tolerance for measurement-based quantum computation with 3D cluster states.