Chris Oliver

I am a Research Associate (postdoc) at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK) in the group of Peter Kirton. I currently work on multimode cavity QED, spin glasses, dissipative phase transitions and disordered Bose systems.

Previously, I worked at the National Quantum Computing Centre (Harwell, UK) as an Analogue Quantum Applications Engineer (2023 - 2025). I worked on noise modelling in neutral atom quantum computers, quantum optimisation, benchmarking and many other things. I completed my PhD at the University of Birmingham (UK) in June 2023, working on topological band theory and the quantum Hall effect in cold atoms and photonics, in the group of Hannah Price. I started my physics life at the University of Birmingham, graduating with a first class MSci in Theoretical Physics in 2017. I also spent a year with the Scientific Computing Department at Harwell getting some professional software development experience.

I have also spent time as a visiting scholar at the University of Trento with Iacopo Carusotto, and Stanford University in the group of Benjamin Lev.

Take a look at my current work under Projects, and see topics of interest below. I’m always open to collaboration!

:loudspeaker: Latest paper, July 2026: PT-symmetry breaking phase transitions in an LMG dimer

Expertise

  • Physics:
    • Open quantum systems: Linblad master equations, dissipative phase transitions
    • Cavity QED
    • Quantum feedback
    • Hybrid quantum computing methods for quantum optimisation (quantum annealing, QAOA and VQE)
    • Topological band theory and the quantum Hall effect
  • Experimental platforms:
    • Photonics: coupled waveguide arrays, boson samplers
    • Cold atoms: optical lattices, quantum gas microscopes, Rydberg tweezer arrays, atoms in optical cavities
  • Scientific computing tools: Python, Julia, C++, MATLAB, Mathematica, QuTiP, Linux sysadmin, HPC, Git/GitHub, professional software development practices, LaTeX
  • Numerical techniques: DMRG with ITensor.jl and ITensorMPS.jl, quantum Monte Carlo in PyALPS, neural network quantum states
  • Mathematics: real and complex analysis, stochastic calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, Fourier analysis, perturbation theory and asymptotics
  • Quantum computing platforms: Rigetti, ORCA, Aegiq, QuEra and D-Wave
  • Generative AI tools: MS Copilot and Claude to streamline workflows

Physics I would like to explore

  • Quantum biology
  • Quantum thermodynamics
  • Quantum error correction and its intersection with open quantum systems and condensed matter
  • Quantum simulation with interacting photons and its implementation in boson samplers
  • Photonic quantum computing
  • Any fun classical and statistical physics problems, e.g. mathematical biology, spin glasses…
  • Intersection of many-body quantum physics with nuclear physics, high-energy physics and general relativity

Techniques I would like to learn

  • Transformers, diffusion models and their applications in physics
  • Algorithms for non-Markovian open quantum systems (process tensors, ACE, TEMPO…)
  • More numerical methods for many-body open systems, e.g. truncated Wigner, HOPS, HEOM…
  • More advanced mathematical physics, especially group theory