NUS Presidential Young Professor (PYP)

October 13, 2022

Asst Prof Ho studies the quantum dynamics of large, macroscopic systems, with an eye towards emerging quantum technologies.

On-going efforts to build large-scale quantum systems comprising highly-controllable basic units have unlocked new physical settings that were previously not accessible in conventional materials systems. 

He says, “Surprisingly, despite knowing how each unit works, the system as a whole exhibits rich and unexpected behaviour.” The idea of the system being more than the sum of its parts intrigued him to pursue his PhD studies in this field. 

One of Asst Prof Ho’s key motivations is to translate scientific knowledge into useful applications that benefit society. For instance, in studying the dynamics of quantum many-body systems, he hopes to be able to design ways to control them for tasks like quantum computation, which holds the promise of solving difficult problems like optimisation or materials characterisation much more quickly.

Moving ahead, he also hopes to quantify precisely how well these applications work over conventional methods.

He adds, “This is important to benchmark the power of quantum technologies that we will develop in the future.”