Chemistry at the Intersection of Quantum Sciences

Dr. Kade Head-Marsden, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Harvard University

Biosketch: Dr. Kade Head-Marsden is currently a postdoctoral research scholar in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University working with Professor Prineha Narang. In her short time in Professor Narang’s group, Dr. Head-Marsden has been investigating the intersection of open quantum systems with quantum information. The related research areas fall into several different projects, including adapting the non-Markovian open quantum system method, which she originally undertook in her graduate work, to be amenable to a quantum computation framework. Dr. Head-Marsden earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Chicago under the guidance of Professor David Mazziotti. Her thesis research was primarily focused in two directions, one on electronic structure theory and one on the field of open quantum systems. Her research in electronic structure utilized the doubly-occupied configuration interaction space to improve the scaling of a variational reduced density matrix method. This reduced scaling allows for active space calculations up to 120 electrons in 120 orbitals, which is one of the largest active space calculations for correlated electronic structure to date. Her research on open quantum systems focused on developing a novel method for treating non-Markovian dynamics from a reduced density matrix perspective. A particular emphasis was on maintaining accurate fermionic statistics for molecular applications. Dr. HeadMarsden earned her BS in Mathematics and Chemistry from McGill University.

Dr. Head-Marsden plans to continue exploring the intersection of open quantum systems with electronic structure and quantum information. She proposes to develop holistic theoretical models for static molecular properties and dynamic molecular processes while utilizing modern classical and quantum mechanical computational resources. Her research group will focus on adaptability and accessibility of their theories and methods to encourage collaboration with experimentalists and theorists across chemistry, physics, and engineering.

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