Quantum Computing Means Unbreakable Codes at Unbeatable Speeds

By Stephen Jordan

Stephen Jordan is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a fellow of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on quantum algorithms and quantum computational complexity. He obtained his PhD in physics at MIT and prior to joining NIST was a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Quantum Information at Caltech.

The field of quantum physics, a century-old science, which found that particles have unique and unexpected properties at the smallest scale, is now at the cutting edge of research into revolutionary new technologies that could dramatically impact U.S. defense and national security. From gravitational sensors that can detect submarines underwater to next-generation computing, the Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge talked to Dr. Stephen Jordan, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), about the race to turn theoretical quantum properties into reality.

The Cipher Brief: For the layman, what is quantum physics and how does it inform the creation of new technologies that we are now seeing emerge?

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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