LAUREATE IN FUTURE CATEGORY

Modern-day supercomputers can no longer keep up with the new generation of computational tasks, such as pharmaceutical drug design, urban traffic optimization, etc. New types of computing devices are being developed worldwide to tackle those new tasks, namely quantum computers, which harness the properties of separate atoms, ions, photons and other quantum objects to perform computational tasks.

This Laureate has developed an original technology for building a trapped-ion quantum processor, which was later showcased solving a chemistry task.

Ilya Semerikov is awarded the VYZOV Prize in Future category for creating a trapped-ion quantum processor based on multilevel quantum systems, qudits. While two-level qubit systems are most commonly used today as fundamental units of quantum information, Mr. Semerikov chose to use multilevel qudits instead, particularly four-level quantum arrays known as ququarts.

Ilya Semerikov graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology’s Department of General and Applied Physics in 2015, specializing in astrophysics. During his postgraduate studies at the Lebedev Physical Institute, he joined a research team headed by Professor Nikolay Kolachevsky and started experimenting with ultracold trapped ions under his guidance. He would later join Professor Kolachevsky’s team at the Russian Quantum Center.

Today, Ilya Semerikov heads the Scalable Ion Quantum Computing Research Group at the Russian Quantum Center, working to develop a universal trapped-ion quantum computer. His team demonstrated Russia’s first universal four-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer based on ququarts as early as 2021. In 2022, Ilya Semerikov was included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the Science and Technology category. He was awarded the Vladilen Letokhov Medal for his achievements in hologram technology research in 2023.