Jessica Powell

I am a quantum computing PhD candidate graduating in 2023. I have an innate intelligence, curiosity for how and why things work, and a proclivity for creative problem-solving. Being a physics researcher has developed my modelling and quantitative analysis techniques, as well as my ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of audiences.

During undergraduate physics courses I learned to model complex mathematical functions, including Monte Carlo Simulations, and object-orientated programming in MATLAB, Python, and C++. I hope to leverage and advance my creative and strategic thinking, entrepreneurial mind frame, and passion for delivering exceptional quality outputs. I thrive in team environments and have actively sought to engage in projects to enrich the lives of my communities.

I reduced measurement acquisition time from hours to seconds, producing high resolution and high quality data sets by developing MATLAB control and acquisition code. I developed nanofabrication methods and produced corresponding procedural documentation for other scientists to follow in order to successfully manufacture a range of quantum devices, including carbon nanotube (spin and charge) qubit devices and low temperature voltage tunable capacitors. The results of the charge qubit devices and varactors that I fabricated and characterised have been accepted in a paper by Apostolidis to Nature electronics (currently on Arxiv).

I have mentored a Master student’s machine learning project to automate qubit identification, by leading weekly meetings, setting reasonable goals, and giving guidance for realistic project outcomes. I regularly use quantitative analysis techniques to experimental data (of >1000x1000 points) to compare with models and simulations of quantum mechanical systems, stochastic models, and electronic circuits that I produced in order to verify theoretical assumptions. Further papers in progress are "Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg interferometry of ultraclean carbon nanotube double quantum dots" (first author), and “Radio-frequency charge state readout and noise characterisation of carbon nanotube quantum dots” (co-author).

I graduated with a First Class MPhys degree from the University of Manchester, with a focus on nuclear, optical, and experimental physics. For my master's year industrial placement I worked at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories for 6 months. I built a ground up development on a Ferromagnetic Resonance (FMR) instrument using LabVIEW for characterisation of thin magnetic films.

This FMR instrument is still in operation in the Materials Characterisation lab, using the procedural documentation that I produced for users Additionally, I analysed magnetic properties of hollandite materials using a SQUID magnetometer, and the compositional spectrums using an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer. This work was presented by Stimpson in a Physics Review B paper in 2018.