- Is Scott Aaronson a “theoretical computer scientist” or just a moderately clever guy with a blog? --Someone on Twitter
I'm David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. Prior to coming here, I taught for nine years in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. My research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally.
Book
Personal
Research
Pedagogy
- CS358H Introduction to Quantum Information Science (UT Austin, Fall 2020)
- CS378 Introduction to Quantum Information Science (UT Austin, Fall 2019)
- CS395T Quantum Complexity Theory (UT Austin, Spring 2019)
- CS378 Introduction to Quantum Information Science (UT Austin, Fall 2018)
- CS378 Introduction to Quantum Information Science (UT Austin, Spring 2017)
- CS395T Quantum and Classical Complexity Theory (UT Austin, Fall 2016)
- The Complexity of Quantum States and Transformations: From Quantum Money to Black Holes (Bellairs Research Institute, Spring 2016)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity (MIT, Spring 2016)
- 6.S899 Seminar on Computation and Physics (MIT, Fall 2015)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity (videos) (MIT, Spring 2015)
- 6.845 Quantum Complexity Theory (MIT, Fall 2014)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity / GITCS (MIT, Spring 2013)
- 6.845 Quantum Complexity Theory (MIT, Fall 2012)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity / GITCS (MIT, Spring 2012)
- 6.893 Philosophy and Theoretical Computer Science (MIT, Fall 2011)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity / GITCS (MIT, Spring 2011)
- 6.845 Quantum Complexity Theory (MIT, Fall 2010)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity / GITCS (MIT, Spring 2010)
- 6.045 Automata, Computability, and Complexity / GITCS (MIT, Spring 2009)
- 6.896 Quantum Complexity Theory (MIT, Fall 2008)
- 6.089 Great Ideas In Theoretical Computer Science (MIT, Spring 2008)
- Quantum Computing Since Democritus (University of Waterloo, Fall 2006)
- Teaching Statement
- The Complexity Zoo
Students
- Andrew Drucker: PhD, graduated MIT August 2012, now Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago
- Michael Forbes: graduated MIT April 2014, now Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (co-advised with Amir Shpilka)
- Alex Arkhipov: PhD, graduated MIT June 2017, now in industry
- Adam Bouland: PhD, graduated MIT June 2017, now a postdoc at UC Berkeley
- Shalev Ben-David: PhD, graduated MIT June 2017, now Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo
- Luke Schaeffer: graduated MIT August 2019, now a postdoc at the University of Waterloo
- Saeed Mehraban: graduated MIT June 2019, now a postdoc at Caltech
- Daniel Grier: graduated MIT August 2019, now a postdoc at the University of Waterloo
- Patrick Rall: PhD, in progress
- Daniel Liang: PhD, in progress
- William Kretschmer: PhD, in progress
- Jiahui Liu: PhD, in progress
- Sebastian Oberhoff: PhD, in progress
- Justin Yirka: PhD, in progress
Postdocs
- Chunhao Wang (UT Austin)
- Nai-Hui Chia (UT Austin)
- Thomas Wong (UT Austin); now a professor at Creighton University
- Zak Webb (UT Austin)
- Supartha Podder (UT Austin); now a postdoc at University of Ottawa
- Robin Kothari (MIT): co-advised, now at Microsoft Research
- Alexander Belov (MIT): now at University of Latvia
- Xiaodi Wu (MIT): now a professor at University of Maryland
- Thomas Vidick (MIT): now a professor at Caltech
- Avinatan Hassidim (MIT): co-advised, now a professor at Bar-Ilan University
Contact
The best way to reach me is via email:
scott at scottaaronson dot com
IMPORTANT: Beginning January 2021, never use my utexas email address except for official university business. Because of a change in university policy, it no longer forwards to my primary inbox and is no longer regularly checked!
Office: GDC (Gates Dell Complex) 4.422
Office phone: (512)-471-7797
Administrative assistant phone: (512)-471-9595