Michael Nielsen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Nielsen
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Michael Nielsen at Science Online London 2011
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Michael Aaron Nielsen
January 4, 1974 |
| Nationality | Australian, American |
| Alma mater | University of New Mexico |
| Known for | Quantum Computation and Quantum Information Nielsen's theorem |
| Awards | Richard C. Tolman Prize Fellow at Caltech, Fulbright Scholar |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, Computer science |
| Institutions | Los Alamos National Laboratory Caltech University of Queensland Perimeter Institute Recurse Center |
| Thesis | Quantum Information Theory (1998) |
| Doctoral advisor | Carlton M. Caves |
Michael Aaron Nielsen was born on January 4, 1974. He is an Australian-American quantum physicist, which means he studies the tiny world of atoms and particles. He is also a science writer and a researcher in computer programming. Michael Nielsen lives in San Francisco.
Contents
Michael Nielsen's Career and Research
Early Education and Awards
In 1998, Michael Nielsen earned his PhD (a high university degree) in physics. He received it from the University of New Mexico. Later, in 2004, he was called Australia's "youngest academic." An academic is someone who works at a university. He also received a special award called a Federation Fellowship. This allowed him to work at the University of Queensland. During this time, he also worked at other important places. These included the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Caltech. He also worked at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Working on Quantum Computing
Michael Nielsen wrote a very popular textbook about quantum computing. He wrote it with Isaac Chuang. Quantum computing is a new way of computing that uses the rules of quantum physics. This book is called Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. Many people have used this book for their studies. By July 2023, it had been mentioned in over 52,000 other research papers.
In 2007, Nielsen started to focus on new projects. He wanted to find better ways for scientists to work together. He also wanted to improve how they share their discoveries. One of his projects was the Polymath project with Timothy Gowers. This project helps many people work together on math problems. It's like a huge team effort for science.
Nielsen also talks a lot about open science. This means making scientific research and data available to everyone. He believes that sharing knowledge helps science grow faster. He was part of a group that worked on open data in science. This group was at the Open Knowledge Foundation.
Books and Online Learning
Nielsen strongly supports open science. He has written many things about it. His book Reinventing Discovery talks about this idea. The famous science magazine Nature gave it a good review. The Financial Times also named it one of the best books of 2011.
In 2015, Nielsen released an online textbook. It is called Neural Networks and Deep Learning. This book teaches about how computers can learn, similar to how brains work. After that, he joined the Recurse Center as a Research Fellow for one year. From 2016 to 2019, he was a Research Fellow at Y Combinator Research.
In 2019, Nielsen worked with Andy Matuschak. They created Quantum Computing for the Very Curious. This is a series of online essays that are interactive. They help explain quantum computing and quantum mechanics in an easy-to-understand way. He also researched with Patrick Collison. They looked into whether scientific progress is slowing down.
Michael Nielsen lives in San Francisco today.
See also
- In Spanish: Michael Nielsen para niños
