Ian Mondragon-Shem
Assistant Professor
Quantum information science and engineering
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Contact
Building & Room:
3007 ERF
Address:
842 West Taylor Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60607
Office Phone:
Email:
About
Our group explores foundational and applied problems in quantum information science and engineering. Our research spans several interconnected areas:
- Superconducting quantum hardware, where we design and model superconducting electric circuits for scalable quantum processors.
- Quantum simulators, focusing on engineered platforms that emulate complex quantum phenomena.
- Topological quantum phases, including Majorana wires that could be used for quantum computation.
- Entanglement and quantum correlations, as tools to probe structure and dynamics of interacting multi-qubit systems.
- Non-ergodic and out-of-equilibrium quantum dynamics, such as many-body localization and Floquet-engineered phases which are relevant in the design of quantum computing hardware.
Much of our work is theoretical and computational, involving numerical simulations, effective modeling, and algorithm design, but always with a view toward physical implementation. While the problems we study are rooted in physics, our approach often bridges electrical engineering, quantum computing, and condensed matter theory.
We welcome students—especially from ECE, physics, and CS backgrounds—who are curious about quantum technologies and enjoy analytical thinking, programming, and working across disciplinary boundaries. Prior experience with quantum mechanics is helpful but not required; motivation and interest matter most.
If you're interested in exploring quantum computing from a hardware-aware and physics-grounded perspective, we encourage you to reach out.
Selected Publications
4. Local imaging of diamagnetism in proximity-coupled niobium nanoisland arrays on gold thin film. Logan Bishop-Van Horn, Irene P Zhang, Emily N Waite, Ian Mondragon-Shem, Scott Jensen, Junseok Oh, Tom Lippman, Malcolm Durkin, Taylor L Hughes, Nadya Mason, Kathryn A Moler, Ilya Sochnikov. Physical Review B 106 (5), 054521 (2022).
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5. The fate of quantum many-body scars in the presence of disorder. I Mondragon-Shem, MG Vavilov, I Martin. PRX Quantum 2 (3), 030349 (2021).
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7. Many-body mobility edge due to symmetry-constrained dynamics and strong interactions. I Mondragon-Shem, A Pal, TL Hughes, CR Laumann. Phys. Rev. B 92 (6), 064203 (2015).
8. Entanglement of a 3D generalization of the Kitaev model on the diamond lattice. I Mondragon-Shem, TL Hughes. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment 2014 (10), P10022 (2014).
9. Topological Criticality in the Chiral-Symmetric AIII Class at Strong Disorder. I Mondragon-Shem, J Song, TL Hughes, E Prodan. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (4), 046802 (2014).
10. Characterizing disordered fermion systems using the momentum-space entanglement spectrum. I Mondragon-Shem, M Khan, TL Hughes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (4), 046806 (2013).
Education
- Ph.D., Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2016
- B.S., Physics, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia, 2010