Stanimir Kondov

Biography

Stan Kondov is an atomic physicist with a broad foundation in quantum technology. He is a junior professor and currently leads the technical effort to build a neutral-atom quantum computer at the European Center for Quantum Science (CESQ) in Strasbourg.

Dr. Kondov earned his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), where he built a sophisticated quantum gas experiment to study disorder physics, culminating in the first observation of 3D Anderson localization—a milestone in the field. During his postdoctoral work at Princeton University, he contributed to the development of a cutting-edge quantum gas microscope to explore superfluidity and quantum magnetism in low-dimensional fermionic systems. At Columbia University, his research shifted to quantum control of molecules, where he helped realize the first molecular lattice clock, a precision instrument aimed at uncovering physics beyond the Standard Model.

Before joining CESQ – which is part of the Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS) at the University of Strasbourg - Stan Kondov gained industry experience at Atom Computing, a startup advancing neutral-atom quantum computing, and at AOSense, a leader in precision sensing technologies. He is passionate about hands-on science and always on the lookout for intriguing challenges—especially the kind that blend deep physics with elegant engineering.

Fellowship 2025

Dates - 01/12/2025-30/11/2027

Project summary

QUANTUM INFORMATION PROCESSOR USING NEUTRAL ATOMS

Quantum computing represents a fundamental shift in how we process information, offering the potential to solve complex problems more efficiently than classical methods. However, despite notable progress, quantum computers have yet to outperform classical systems in any practical task. This is primarily due to high error rates in core operations—qubit initialization, gate execution, and measurement—along with the limited number of available qubits and the significant challenges of implementing quantum error correction.

Error correction is essential for scaling quantum systems. By encoding information redundantly across multiple qubits, it enables reliable computation despite inevitable hardware imperfections. This project focuses on developing effective error correction strategies tailored to neutral-atom quantum processors, which offer promising features such as long coherence times and dynamic spatial reconfigurability.

The study addresses the problem from two angles: (1) Analysis: establishing benchmarks to evaluate a processor’s capacity for error-corrected operations, and (2) Design: proposing concrete implementations—both optical and electronic—for integrating error-correcting codes into hardware.

This work will help define a crucial abstraction in the quantum computing hierarchy: the error-corrected logical qubit. It also supports the development of aQCess, a quantum computing platform at CESQ (University of Strasbourg).