Bob Coecke
Interests
I was Professor of Quantum Foundations, Logics and Structures 2011-2021, Lecturer of Quantum Computer Science 2007-2011, EPSRC Advenced Research Fellow 2004-2009, Postdoc 2001-2003, and created and headed the Quantum Group, here at the Department of Computer Science. After that, I was Chief Scientist at Quantinuum. Atm I am writing two books, and developing quantum music. I am also a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
I am still active at Oxford University, where I mainly teach, supervise and mentor, here at the Department of Computer Science, at the Mathematical Institute, and at the Department of Physics.
At Wolfson College, where I am Emeritus Fellow, I lead the Quantum Foundations Research Cluster.
Below is a brief bio.
You can contact me by email at bob [.] coecke [@] gmail [.] com
My courses:
- I am teaching Classical and Quantum Compositional Distributional Meaning in Hilary
- I am co-teaching Introduction to Quantum Information in Hilary with Artur Ekert where I cover ZX-calculus - lecture notes
- I co-created Quantum Processes and Computation with Aleks Kissinger and covers our book Picturing Quantum Processes
Biography
I am currently focussing on writing two books, one on a novel relational/compositional worldview, and one on quantum music. I am Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College Oxford, and Visiting Fellow at the Computer Science Department and the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University. I am in FQxI's Scientific Advisory Council, a father of Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL) and Applied Category Theory (ACT) conference series, and the diamond-open-access journal Compositionality, and Cambridge University Press' Applied Category Theory book series.
I received the 2024 test-of-time award by IEEE-LiCS. I pioneered Categorical Quantum Mechanics (now in AMS's MSC2020 classification, and received the above mentioned award for it), ZX-calculus, DisCoCat natural language meaning, mathematical foundations for resource theories, Quantum Natural Language Processing, and DisCoCirc natural language meaning. I was the first person to have Quantum Foundations as part of his academic title.
I co-authored Picturing Quantum Processes, with Aleks Kissinger, a book providing a fully diagrammatic treatment of quantum theory and its applications. I co-authored Quantum in Pictures, with Stefano Gogioso, which does the same, but now accessible to people with no maths background. We did an amazing experiment, covered in The Guardian and The Observer, by Quantinuum, and here.
I was Professor of Quantum Foundations, Logics and Structures at the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University, where I was 20 years, 2001-2020, and co-founded and led a multi-disciplinary Quantum Group that grew to 50 members and I supervised 80 PhD students. After that, I was Chief Scientist at Quantinuum, for some 7 years, which included being the head of Quantinuum's Oxford-based Quantum NLP & Compositional Intelligence sub-team.
I am still supervising, at Oxford and elsewhere, and also still teach at Oxford's Mathematical Institute. I co-authored some 250 research papers. I obtained approx. 40 grants, including from NFWO, EPSRC, Leverhulme, EU, ONR, AFOSR, FQXi, JTF. I am a founding father of the QPL (Quantum Physics and Logic) and ACT (Applied Category Theory) communities, of the diamond-open-access journal Compositionality, and Cambridge University Press' Applied Category Theory book series.
I may have been the 1st person to talk about Quantum Music, in the 90's. I am a founding shareholder of Moth Quantum, having co-composed the 1st ever piece of music generated by a quantum computer, under the pseudsonym Quanthoven. You can read about it here.
Selected Publications
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Quantum Natural Language Processing on Near−Term Quantum Computers
Konstantinos Meichanetzidis‚ Stefano Gogioso‚ Giovanni De Felice‚ Nicolò Chiappori‚ Alexis Toumi and Bob Coecke
2020.
Details about Quantum Natural Language Processing on Near−Term Quantum Computers | BibTeX data for Quantum Natural Language Processing on Near−Term Quantum Computers | Link to Quantum Natural Language Processing on Near−Term Quantum Computers
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Reconstructing quantum theory from diagrammatic postulates
John Selby‚ Carlo Maria Scandolo and Bob Coecke
In arXiv:1802.00367 [quant−ph]. January, 2018.
Details about Reconstructing quantum theory from diagrammatic postulates | BibTeX data for Reconstructing quantum theory from diagrammatic postulates | Link to Reconstructing quantum theory from diagrammatic postulates
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Graded Entailment for Compositional Distributional Semantics
Desislava Bankova‚ Bob Coecke‚ Martha Lewis and Daniel Marsden
2016.
Details about Graded Entailment for Compositional Distributional Semantics | BibTeX data for Graded Entailment for Compositional Distributional Semantics | Link to Graded Entailment for Compositional Distributional Semantics