William Fefferman

William Fefferman is an Assistant Professor in the computer science department at the University of Chicago.Previously, he held research positions at the University of California at Berkeley, advised by Umesh Vazirani, and in QuICS, at the University of Maryland/NIST.

Fefferman studies the theory underlying quantum computing, with a particular focus on “quantum advantage” – experiments and applications performed by quantum computers that would be impossible or impractical for classical computers. His research is in part supported by an Air Force Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research entitled “Characterizing the Power of Experimentally Feasible Quantum Computation with Applications to Rigorous Security Guarantees for Quantum-safe Cryptography,” a NSF CAREER award, entitled “Near-term quantum computing: achieving quantum advantage, and next steps”, as well as a Google Research award (2022).