Dr. Lindsay Bassman Oftelie ’07 was recently awarded the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship — one of Europe’s most competitive and prestigious programs — to carry out research in quantum thermodynamics at CNR Istituto Nanoscienze in Pisa, Italy. Prior to this, Lindsay was a postdoctoral researcher in the Applied Computing for Scientific Discovery group at Berkeley Lab for two years and a research assistant, studying quantum algorithms, at the University of Southern California for nearly six years before that. Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Southern California.
*Published in the 2023 Alumnae Bulletin
When did you first become interested in physics, quantum physics and the vast world of science? Is there a memory from your earlier years that stands out?
I always favored science and math, but I wasn’t particularly interested in physics in high school. I studied computer science during undergrad, which I loved, and I wanted to continue in academia. I wanted to apply my coding skills and love of programming to another area of science.
After I started my first job at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, working on the trade engine itself, I realized it wasn’t fulfilling for me and I started to read more about physics. I would attribute my interest to two books — Elegant Universe by Brian Green and From Eternity to Here by Sean Carroll — in particular. I also read about quantum computers and discovered that this could be an area in which I could employ my skills.
I remember having a conversation with my mom — crying — because I thought it was too late to study physics at age 22. Of course, it wasn’t! I went back to school for my master’s program and I’m very happy with that decision.
You were recently awarded the prestigious Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship — can you talk more about that?
I was interested in moving to Europe and I heard about this fellowship — that can be in any area of science, in any area in Europe. The only stipulation is that it must be done at some institution in one of the EU countries. It’s a two-year fellowship for which you had to write a research proposal, which was basically a two-year plan, broken down month by month, of what you plan to do and produce.
You work with a specific institution and an advisor who “co-sponsors” your application. I’m researching a niche field of physics called quantum thermodynamics and had been reading a lot of papers about the subject. I emailed one of the authors, Michele Campisi, out of the blue, hoping he’d be willing to apply with me, and as it turns out, he had done the fellowship himself 10 years prior!
A main topic of my research is examining information as a physical quantity that a particle can possess. (Just like mass and energy.) A big question I want to answer is: “Can we re-write the laws of physics where the star component is the information that a system has?” Also, unlike American funding, there are no required deliverables which is nice!
What other career accomplishments are you most proud of?
I was recently published (September 2022) in a journal called Physical Review Letters, or “PRL,” which is one of the most respected journals in the physics community. The paper was about an algorithm I wrote for a quantum computer that computes free energy of a physical system. (You can read Lindsay’s paper here: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.130603)
What do you find most rewarding about your work? Most challenging?
Being able to make a small contribution to humankind’s advancement through my work is very rewarding. A big part of it, too, is figuring out how to make quantum computers in general and I enjoy being at the forefront of this scientific advancement. The most challenging aspect is that it’s such a new field with a lot of unknowns. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword because that also makes it exciting and full of opportunity.
For those who may not know, what is a Quantum Computer?
I’ll start with classical computers. Those run completely on “bits,” which is a switch that’s either in the 0 position or the 1 position and we manipulate them through code. Anything you run on your computer is a series of flipping these bits from 0 to 1 (only two states) to carry out whatever calculation or computation you want to do.
Quantum computers offer certain advantages, and you need to figure out how to harness them. They use quantum bits or “qubits,” which include 0 and 1 or anything in between (called a superposition), thus producing an infinite number of states. This allows you to do more powerful calculations.
You can also entangle two qubits, which adds information together, and allows quantum computers to run multiple jobs in parallel or perform bigger calculations in a shorter amount of time. Entanglement also allows you to store more information than bits. One of the biggest constraints as scientists, I think, is that we run out of memory too fast, and this helps with that problem.
Can you describe what a “day in the office” looks like for you? What are your chief responsibilities?
It varies a lot, which is why I love working in science. Some days are dedicated to reading scientific papers, which takes a good 2-3 hours in a quiet space to really absorb the information! Sometimes it’s writing code to run simulations of quantum systems. Other times it’s planning out what code will do on pen and paper and then translating it into a programming language. (I love writing code and typically use Python.) There’s also the debugging phase — you rarely get it right the first time! You also need to write up your results for papers, which takes time, and is less fun, but it’s important.
For how long were you at Chapin? What resonates most about your years there?
I came to Chapin in Class 1 — almost a “sole survivor”! What stands out to me is how comfortable I felt there. It really was a second home. All of the people, particularly other classmates, felt like family. The teachers really cared about their lessons and educating you. Plus, the food! It was certainly not a place you dreaded going to every day.
In what ways do you feel Chapin prepared you for college and the adult world? What particular skills (academic, artistic, social, emotional) or interests did Chapin help foster?
There are the obvious answers of being able to write well, gaining strong time management skills — those kinds of things. But, most importantly, Chapin gave me confidence. I was the only woman in a lot of my computer science classes in college but that never fazed me.
What advice would you give to current Chapin students or young alums who may be interested in pursuing a career in the physics or other scientific fields? How might you consider yourself a role model for young people?
Back to what I mentioned earlier, it’s never too late! There are so many areas of science, especially now with new technology, and it’s continuously evolving. Don’t be afraid to pivot to new areas that interest you. In science, I believe you’ll only be successful if you’re pursuing an area that you find extremely fascinating. During my Ph.D. program, I tried three different research groups before settling in my final one and, in my last year, I even pivoted within that group! Always stay in tune with what you’re really captivated by.
How do you like to relax and decompress?
Before moving to Pisa, I lived in Oakland, California. There are really beautiful Redwood Forests and I used to take long, two-hour hikes with my dog. I like to run, too. It’s a great way to relieve stress and think out complex problems. Cooking is also a big passion of mine.