Postgraduate research opportunities Robust Control in Complex Quantum Systems
ApplyKey facts
- Opens: Friday 13 March 2026
- Deadline: Thursday 30 April 2026
- Number of places: 1
- Duration: 42 to 48 months, depending on funding availability
- Funding: Equipment costs, Home fee, Stipend, Travel costs
Overview
This project focuses on designing new practical and theoretical tools for controlling quantum systems in the presence of noise and uncertainty. Central to the work is the Universally Robust Control (URC) framework – a recently developed approach to designing quantum evolutions that are provably insensitive to perturbations. You'll extend these ideas to complex and many-body systems, with applications to quantum computing and quantum sensing.Eligibility
An upper second-class UK Honours degree or overseas equivalent in physics or a closely-related subject is required.
Candidate background
Applicants should have a strong undergraduate background in quantum mechanics and ideally previous exposure to quantum information or many-body physics.
Programming experience – particularly in Python or Julia – is expected, as the project involves significant numerical work including implementation and optimisation of quantum control algorithms.
Please mention in your cover letter and/or CV any previous research experience (for example, undergraduate projects) and relevant experience in quantum.
Project Details
Quantum control theory governs how external driving fields can be combined with native interactions to steer quantum systems toward desired behaviour. The control resources required to achieve this depend non-trivially on system properties, the nature of noise and perturbations, and the complexity of the control objective.
This project explores new frontiers in quantum control of complex systems. Specific research directions include:
- designing quantum gates and states that are inherently insensitive to fluctuating system parameters, building on the URC framework [1]
- developing and applying new metrics for quantifying sensitivity to perturbations, connecting quantum chaos theory to practical gate benchmarking and error mitigation
- combining quantum control with quantum sensing to mitigate unwanted noise while selectively amplifying weak signals
- optimising quantum information propagation through many-body systems
To tackle these problems, you will build a solid foundation in optimal control theory and forge connections with quantum many-body physics, quantum geometry, and quantum sensing. Key theoretical tools include the URC formalism [1], dynamical Lie algebras, and quantum mean-field models [2].
What you'll gain
This project provides broad, career-level training at the interface of quantum information science, quantum control, and quantum many-body physics. By the end of your PhD, you'll be well positioned for roles in quantum software and academic research, with expertise spanning:
- quantum optimal control algorithms and their implementation
- quantum algorithm compilation, and benchmarking
- classical simulation methods for many-body systems
- error mitigation strategies relevant to current quantum hardware
This PhD project is part of the newly established Quantum Control & Complexity group at the University of Strathclyde, supported by the Royal Society University Research Fellowship "Controlling quantum chaos to exploit near-term quantum technologies" – a long-term research programme exploring the frontier between quantum chaos, quantum control, and quantum technologies.
Key papers laying the foundations of this research are:
[1] Universally robust quantum control – arXiv:2309.14437
[2] Phase space geometry and quantum sensing – arXiv:2211.01250
[3] Geometric Quantum Speed limits for unitary operations – arXiv:1901.02042
[4] Measurement and feedback control for Hamiltonian engineering – arXiv:1907.12606
Funding details
Funding includes full home tuition fee plus an annual tax-free stipend of £20,034. Funds will also be available to support relevant equipment and travel.
While there is no funding in place for opportunities marked "unfunded", there are lots of different options to help you fund postgraduate research. Visit funding your postgraduate research for links to government grants, research councils funding and more, that could be available.
Apply
Enquiries and applications should be made by email to Dr Pablo Poggi (pablo.poggi@strath.ac.uk). Please attach a CV and cover letter to your application.
Number of places: 1
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