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Seth Lloyd

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Seth Lloyd
Seth Lloyd in 2013
Born (1960-08-02) August 2, 1960 (age 64)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPhillips Academy
Harvard College
Cambridge University
Rockefeller University
Known forCoherent information
Continuous-variable quantum information
Dynamical decoupling
Effective complexity
HHL algorithm
Quantum capacity
Quantum illumination
Scientific career
FieldsQuantum information science
InstitutionsMIT
Caltech
Los Alamos
Santa Fe Institute
Doctoral advisorHeinz Pagels

Seth Lloyd (born August 2, 1960) is an American quantum information scientist and professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Mechanical Engineering.

He has done foundational work in quantum information science, including work on designs for a quantum computer, quantum analog computation, quantum analogs of Shannon's theorem, and novel methods for quantum error correction and noise reduction.[1]

Biography

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Lloyd was born on August 2, 1960. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1978 and received a BA from Harvard College in 1982. He completed Part III and an MPhil from Cambridge University in 1983 and 1984 while on a Marshall Scholarship.[2] Lloyd completed a PhD in physics at Rockefeller University in 1988 advised by Heinz Pagels.

From 1988 to 1991, Lloyd was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech working with Murray Gell-Mann on applications of information to quantum systems, and from 1991 to 1994 he was a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory working on quantum computation. In 1994 he joined the mechanical engineering department at MIT. Lloyd has also been an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute.

In 2007 he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society.[3] In 2012 he was given the International Quantum Communication Award.[4]

Work

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Lloyd directs the Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory (xQIT) at MIT.[5] He has made several contributions to quantum information science, including a proposal for a digital quantum simulator,[6] a framework for quantum metrology,[7] a treatment of continuous-variable quantum information,[8] dynamical decoupling as a method of quantum error mitigation,[9] and research on the possible relevance of quantum effects in biological phenomena, such as photosynthesis.[10][11]

With Aram Harrow and Avinatan Hassidim he introduced the HHL algorithm[12] for solving systems of linear equations, and later several quantum machine learning algorithms based on it.[13][14] These algorithms were widely thought to give an exponential speedup relative to the best classical algorithms, until the discovery by Ewin Tang of classical algorithms achieving the same exponential speedup.[15]

In his 2006 book, Programming the Universe, Lloyd contends that the universe itself is a large quantum computer. According to Lloyd, once the laws of physics are understood completely, small-scale quantum computing can be used to understand the universe completely as well. He states that the whole universe could be simulated on a computer in 600 years provided that computational power increases according to Moore's Law.[16]

Association with Jeffrey Epstein

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Initial reports

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During July 2019, reports surfaced that MIT and other institutions had accepted funding from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.[17] In the ensuing scandal, Joi Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, resigned from MIT as a result of his association with Epstein.[18][19] Lloyd had been introduced to Epstein at the Edge Billionaires' Dinner in 2004 by his literary agent John Brockman, who had close connections to Epstein.[20] Brockman had also previously introduced Lloyd to Ito in February 2004.[21] Lloyd can be seen in a photo taken at a dinner at Harvard in 2004, which had been hosten by Epstein and mainly included Harvard faculty.[22]

Further revelations and controversy

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Lloyd's connections to Epstein drew substantial criticism, having acknowledged funding from Epstein in 19 papers,[23] visiting Epstein's private island,[24] and visiting Epstein in prison after his first conviction.[25] Lloyd had been featured prominently in promotional materials distributed by Epstein, including photos posted to his blog of discussions between Epstein, Lloyd, and Harvard professor Martin Nowak, who had also accepted substantial funding from Epstein. [26] Lloyd was also featured prominently in the header photo for another blog maintained by Epstein and his foundation. [27]

On August 22, 2019, Lloyd published a letter apologizing for accepting grants totaling $225,000 from Epstein.[25] The controversy at MIT continued despite this, including student protests demanding both Lloyd's and Reif's resignations.[28][29][30] Lloyd also received backlash for discussing his relationship with Epstein during an undergraduate quantum computing course he taught.[24][28] At a forum held by the MIT administration in October 2019, students criticized MIT's decision to allow Lloyd to continue teaching.[31] A student organization, MIT Students Against War, criticized Lloyd's purported framing of his relationship with Epstein as trying to rehabilitate a friend who had made a mistake.[32] Students also continued to staged in-person protests and demand Lloyd's resignation.[33]

MIT investigation

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In January 2020, at the request of the MIT Corporation, the law firm Goodwin Procter issued a report[18] on all of MIT's interactions with Epstein. The report determined Lloyd to have violated MIT norms by accepting a donation from Epstein into his personal bank account.[34]: 12  Moreover, after Epstein's first conviction, Lloyd accepted two donations of $50,000 which were sent by Epstein to test if MIT would still accept his donations despite his criminal conviction.[34]: 13  The report concluded that Lloyd "purposefully failed to inform MIT that Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was the source of the donations"[34]: 5  which were made to test MIT's vetting process, and took deliberate steps "to obscure the fact that Epstein was the donor and to hinder any possible due diligence or vetting by MIT."[34]: 20  As a result of the investigation, on January 10, 2020, Lloyd was placed on paid administrative leave.[35]

Aftermath

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Even after the publication of the report, Lloyd continued to deny that he misled MIT about the source of the funds he received from Epstein.[36][37] In February 2020, Lloyd's secondary appointment in the MIT physics department was suspended.[38] Later, a committee of five senior MIT faculty and panel of MIT faculty were convened in order to determine what action MIT should take regarding Lloyd.[39]

In December 2020, the panel concluded that Lloyd did not attempt to circumvent the MIT vetting process, and Lloyd was allowed to keep his tenured faculty position.[40] However, a majority of the committee members concluded that Lloyd had violated MIT policy by not disclosing certain publicly known information about Epstein's background.[41] Lloyd was then subject to a series of disciplinary actions over the next 5 years, including limits on his ability to solicit donors and to advise students.[40][41] Some students were still opposed to the administrations decision, seeing it as being too lenient on Lloyd.[42]

Personal life

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Lloyd's mother was Susan Lloyd, a history teacher at Phillips Andover.[43][44] His maternal grandparents were Rustin McIntosh, a pediatrician, and Millicent Carey McIntosh, an educational administrator.[43] His father, Robert Lloyd, was an art teacher at Phillips Andover [43][45] His paternal grandparents were teachers of history and dance at Phillips Exeter.[45]

Selected publications

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  • Lloyd, Seth (1988). Black Holes, Demons and the Loss of Coherence: How complex systems get information, and what they do with it (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). The Rockefeller University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-07.
  • Lloyd, S. (2000-08-31). "Ultimate physical limits to computation". Nature. 406 (6799): 1047–1054. arXiv:quant-ph/9908043v3. Bibcode:2000Natur.406.1047L. doi:10.1038/35023282. PMID 10984064. S2CID 75923.
  • Lloyd, Seth (2001-10-24). "Computational capacity of the universe". Physical Review Letters. 88 (23) 237901. arXiv:quant-ph/0110141. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.237901. PMID 12059399. S2CID 6341263.
  • Lloyd, S., Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos, Knopf, March 14, 2006, 240 p., ISBN 1-4000-4092-2
  • Lloyd, Seth (2008). "Quantum Mechanics and Emergence". In Abbott, Derek; Davies, Paul C. W.; Pati, Arun K. (eds.). Quantum Aspects of Life. Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1848162532.
  • Movie: In 2022 Lloyd starred in the short film Steeplechase directed by Andrey Kezzyn,[46] which thematizes closed timelike curves, a topic Lloyd has also addressed in his scientific work.[47]

Notes

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  1. ^ MIT News Office (2015-08-31). "Seth Lloyd, leading quantum mechanics expert, appointed Nam P. Suh Professor". Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  2. ^ "OYSI". oysi.org. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  3. ^ "2007 Fellows of the American Physical Society".
  4. ^ "2012 QCMC".
  5. ^ "People: xQIT: Leadership". mit.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  6. ^ Seth Lloyd (1996). "Universal Quantum Simulators". Science. 273 (5278): 1073–1078. Bibcode:1996Sci...273.1073L. doi:10.1126/science.273.5278.1073. PMID 8688088.
  7. ^ Giovannetti, Vittorio; Lloyd, Seth; Maccone, Lorenzo (2006). "Quantum Metrology". Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (1): 010401. arXiv:quant-ph/0509179. Bibcode:2006PhRvL..96a0401G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.010401. PMID 16486424. S2CID 32512151.
  8. ^ Lloyd, Seth; Braunstein, Samuel L. (1999). "Quantum Computation over Continuous Variables". Phys. Rev. Lett. 82 (8): 1784–1787. arXiv:quant-ph/9810082. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..82.1784L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.1784. S2CID 921320.
  9. ^ Viola, Lorenza; Knill, Emanuel; Lloyd, Seth (1999). "Dynamical Decoupling of Open Quantum Systems". Phys. Rev. Lett. 82 (12): 2417–2421. arXiv:quant-ph/9809071. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..82.2417V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.2417.
  10. ^ Mohseni, Masoud; Rebentrost, Patrick; Lloyd, Seth; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán (2008). "Environment-assisted quantum walks in photosynthetic energy transfer". J. Chem. Phys. 129 (17): 174106. arXiv:0805.2741. Bibcode:2008JChPh.129q4106M. doi:10.1063/1.3002335. PMID 19045332. S2CID 938902.
  11. ^ Lloyd, Seth (2011). "Quantum coherence in biological systems". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 302 (1): 012037. Bibcode:2011JPhCS.302a2037L. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/302/1/012037. ISSN 1742-6596.
  12. ^ Harrow, Aram W.; Hassidim, Avinatan; Lloyd, Seth (2009). "Quantum Algorithm for Linear Systems of Equations". Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (15): 150502. arXiv:0811.3171. Bibcode:2009PhRvL.103o0502H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.150502. PMID 19905613.
  13. ^ Lloyd, S.; Mohseni, M.; Rebentrost, P. (2014). "Quantum principal component analysis". Nature Physics. 10 (9): 631–633. arXiv:1307.0401. Bibcode:2014NatPh..10..631L. doi:10.1038/nphys3029.
  14. ^ Rebentrost, Patrick; Mohseni, Masoud; Lloyd, Seth (2014). "Quantum Support Vector Machine for Big Data Classification". Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (13): 130503. arXiv:1307.0471. Bibcode:2014PhRvL.113m0503R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.130503. PMID 25302877. S2CID 5503025.
  15. ^ Tang, Ewin (2021). "Quantum Principal Component Analysis Only Achieves an Exponential Speedup Because of Its State Preparation Assumptions". Physical Review Letters. 127 (6) 060503. arXiv:1811.00414. Bibcode:2021PhRvL.127f0503T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.060503. PMID 34420330. S2CID 236956378.
  16. ^ Lloyd, Seth (20 October 2002). "THE COMPUTATIONAL UNIVERSE". Edge.org. Edge Foundation. Retrieved 7 October 2020. 'Every physical system registers information, and just by evolving in time, by doing its thing, it changes that information ...'
  17. ^ Aldhous, Peter (2019-07-11). "Jeffrey Epstein Called Himself A "Science Philanthropist" And Donated Millions To These Researchers". Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  18. ^ a b "MIT and Jeffrey Epstein". factfinding2020.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  19. ^ Tracy, Marc; Hsu, Tiffany (7 September 2019). "Director of M.I.T.'s Media Lab Resigns After Taking Money From Jeffrey Epstein". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  20. ^ Chen, Angela (2020-01-10). "Eight revelations from MIT's Jeffrey Epstein report". MIT Technology Review.
  21. ^ "Lunch, the universe and everything with Seth Lloyd". Joi Ito's Web. 2004-02-05.
  22. ^ "September 9, 2004 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Jeffrey Epstein at a dinner he hosted at Harvard University with Harvard Professors , Alan Dershowitz, Stephen Pinker, Princeton Professor Robert Trivers, Larry Summers, E.O. Wilson,, Marvin Minsky, Lisa Randall, Martin Nowak. Alan Guth, September, 2004. (Rick Friedman Stock Photo". Alamy. 2004-09-09.
  23. ^ Tracy, Marc; Hsu, Tiffany (2019-08-23). "Jeffrey Epstein Donations to M.I.T. Will be Focus of University Inquiry". The New York Times.
  24. ^ a b War, MIT Students Against (2019-11-21). "The case of Seth Lloyd is a microcosm of the systemic problems at MIT". The Tech. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  25. ^ a b Lloyd, Seth (2019-08-24). "I am writing to apologize to Jeffrey Epstein's victims". medium.com.
  26. ^ "Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation Blog: PHOTOS". jeffreyepsteinblog.com. 2013-03-12. Archived from the original on 2013-08-12.
  27. ^ "Profiles in Science". jeffreyepsteinscience.com. 2011-04-15. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13.
  28. ^ a b Graham, Eleanor. "Seth Lloyd should not be teaching at MIT". The Tech. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  29. ^ Gurley, Lauren Kaori (2019-11-04). "Students Are Demanding MIT Fire a Professor Who Visited Epstein in Prison". Vice. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  30. ^ Tolchin, Rion (2019-12-05). "Seth Lloyd should continue teaching at MIT". The Tech. Cambridge, MA. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  31. ^ Chen, Kristina (2019-10-03). "Student forum about MIT-Epstein relations held with Reif, senior admin present". The Tech.
  32. ^ War, MIT Students Against (2019-11-24). "The Case Against Seth Lloyd. Seth Lloyd, the tenured professor of…". Medium.
  33. ^ @MIT_SAW (November 24, 2019). "Seth Lloyd: "I saw [Jeffrey Epstein] on many occasions. I never saw him with underage women. And I actually never saw him do anything creepy. But the one creepy thing about him... "" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  34. ^ a b c d "Report concerning Jeffrey Epstein's interactions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology" (PDF). 2020-01-10.
  35. ^ MIT News Office (2020-01-10). "MIT releases results of fact-finding on engagements with Jeffrey Epstein". Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  36. ^ Lloyd, Seth (2020-01-16). "What I told MIT about Epstein's donations". medium.com. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  37. ^ Lu, Kerri (2020-01-23). "Seth Lloyd denies he hid Epstein's identity from MIT, says he followed MIT policies". The Tech.
  38. ^ Jordaan, Richter (2020-02-13). "Physics department suspends Seth Lloyd's secondary appointment". The Tech.
  39. ^ "Epstein and MIT: The Unanswered Questions". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2015-01-13.
  40. ^ a b Stening, Tanner (2020-12-18). "Massachusetts Institute of Technology disciplining professor with ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein". MassLive. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  41. ^ a b "Decision on Professor Seth Lloyd". MIT Organization Chart. 2020-12-18.
  42. ^ Domínguez, Alonso Espinosa; Hodel, Matt; Lizarde, Rebecca; Fields, Gabe (2021-02-25). "Don't be surprised by the administration's decision on Seth Lloyd". The Tech.
  43. ^ a b c "WEDDINGS; Eve Zimmerman and Seth Lloyd". The New York Times. 1994-05-29. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  44. ^ Lloyd, Robert (2018-09-06). "From Abbot to Andover, an education icon—Susan McIntosh Lloyd". Andover. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  45. ^ a b "Remembering Robert A. Lloyd". Andover. 2024-11-14. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  46. ^ Seth Lloyd at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  47. ^ Lloyd, Seth; Maccone, Lorenzo; Garcia-Patron, Raul; Giovannetti, Vittorio; Shikano, Yutaka; Pirandola, Stefano; Rozema, Lee A.; Darabi, Ardavan; Soudagar, Yasaman; Shalm, Lynden K.; Steinberg, Aephraim M. (2011). "Closed Timelike Curves via Postselection: Theory and Experimental Test of Consistency". Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (4): 040403. arXiv:1005.2219. Bibcode:2011PhRvL.106d0403L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.040403. PMID 21405310. S2CID 18442086.
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