Dr. Kate Smith

Assistant Professor

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Biography

Kate Smith's active research areas include quantum computing, computer architecture, distributed computing, optimized compilation, error mitigation, simulation, and security. Before joining Northwestern University in January 2024, she managed a software engineering team at Infleqtion responsible for maintaining Superstaq, a physics-aware quantum compiler, and directed R&D projects related to optimized compilation and error mitigation for quantum programs across a wide range of quantum technology platforms. From January 2020 to September 2022, Kate was a CQE/IBM postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago in the Department of Computer Science, where she was part of the Enabling Practical-Scale Quantum Computing (EPiQC) group. She received her B.S. in Mathematics and B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2014, M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2015, and earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University in December 2019. Kate has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed papers and has served on the technical program committees of several prestigious conferences. In 2022, she was recognized as a 2021 MIT EECS Rising Star and received the 2021 IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Multiple Valued Logic (TC-MVL) Kenneth C. Smith Early Career Award in Microelectronics.

Research Interests

Experience

Assistant Professor

2024-01-01 — Present

Northwestern University • Evanston, IL

Teaching and conducting research in quantum computing and related areas.

Software Engineering Manager

2022-09-01 — 2024-01-01

Infleqtion •

Managed a team responsible for maintaining the Superstaq quantum compiler.

Postdoctoral Scholar

2020-01-01 — 2022-09-01

University of Chicago • Chicago, IL

Contributed to the Enabling Practical-Scale Quantum Computing (EPiQC) group.

Awards

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MIT EECS Rising Star

2021-01-01
#

Kenneth C. Smith Early Career Award

2021-01-01

Requirements for Northwestern University

Doctorate Program
Requirements
GPA Requirement
Required:3
TOEFL
Total
Required:90
IELTS
Overall
Required:7
Prerequisites
U.S. Bachelor's degree or equivalent
Application Checklist
  • Online application
  • Transcripts
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Statement of purpose
  • Resume/CV
  • TOEFL/IELTS scores (if applicable)
Specialization Notes

Standard PhD requirements for TGS departments including Chemistry, Physics, and Sociology.