Professor Crystal Senko Awarded Canada Research Chair in Trapped Ion Quantum Computing

(UWaterloo) Professor Crystal Senko of the Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Institute for Quantum Computing has been awarded a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Trapped Ion Quantum Computing.
The CRC program is designed to support chairholders reach their individual research goals while helping to transfer their knowledge through supervision, training, and collaboration. CRCs stand for innovation, excellence, and the pursuit of knowledge. Senko joins 15 other University of Waterloo Science Professors in this distinguished program, and is one of nine professors across Waterloo appointed in 2020.
Senko joined the University of Waterloo in November 2016 as Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Science. She is the lead investigator of the Trapped Ion Quantum Control lab and is working toward the creation of a trapped-ion quantum computer. Current practices in quantum computing focus on using single-level “qubits” (using electrons to represent values of either 0 or 1) to encode information. Senko’s research explores an expanded version of this, known as “qudits”, capable of three, five, or possibly more levels of encryption using electrons to represent multiple values. This puts her research on the cutting edge of large-scale quantum computing.