Shayan Majidy

Shayan (Shay) Majidy

shah-YAHN mah-JEE-dee

email / arxiv / google scholar / cv

I’m a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, interested in quantum error correction and fault-tolerant applications, thermalization and dynamics of quantum many-body systems, and the intersection of AI and quantum computing.

During my PhD, I co-wrote the textbook Building Quantum Computers as lead author, published by Cambridge University Press. My PhD work was recognized with top honours from the Science department at Waterloo (WB Pearson Medal), the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC Achievement Award), and the Perimeter Institute (John Brodie Memorial Award).

Research interests

Quantum error correction—Most efforts to reduce error-correction overhead focus on maximizing how many logical qubits you can store — but a qubit you can store and not operate on is not very useful. My recent work starts from the other end: fix the gates you need, then find the best codes that support them. This led to phantom codes, which can implement any CNOT circuit in-block with zero overhead and perfect fidelity.

Fault-tolerant quantum architectures—Algorithms, error-correcting codes, and hardware must be co-designed, as choices at one level shape what is achievable at the others. My work develops fault-tolerant architectures—efficiently mapping applications to hardware and designing schemes to achieve universality and reduce the overhead of logical gates—with a recent focus on neutral-atom platforms.

AI and quantum computing—I’m interested in both directions of the AI–quantum interface: using machine learning to discover error-correcting codes with and to decode syndromes in real time, and designing elementary machine learning primitives that run natively on quantum hardware to understand where quantum resources offer a genuine computational advantage for learning tasks.

Quantum thermodynamics—A standard assumption in physics is that conserved quantities commute, yet charges need not — a fact central to quantum theory. During my PhD, I helped establish noncommuting-charge physics as a distinct subfield, showing that noncommuting charges can increase entanglement, remove non-stationary dynamics in many-body systems, and induce critical phases in monitored quantum circuits. I co-authored a Perspective on this emerging field in Nature Reviews Physics.

Education & academic positions

2024–2027 Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physics, Harvard University
Faculty Advisors: Misha Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor
Michael Gullans, NIST Physicist & QuICS Fellow
2019–2024 Ph.D. in Physics, University of Waterloo
Faculty Advisors:Raymond Laflamme, late Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis “John von Neumann” Chair in Quantum Information
Nicole Yunger Halpern, NIST Physicist & QuICS Fellow
Funding:Vanier Scholarship, 2021–2024
2018–2019 M.Sc. in Physics, University of Waterloo
Faculty Advisors: Raymond Laflamme, late Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis “John von Neumann” Chair in Quantum Information
2011–2015 B.Sc. in Theoretical Physics, University of Guelph

Selected publications

See Google Scholar for a full list including preprints.

Textbook

Building Quantum Computers S. Majidy, C. Wilson, and R. Laflamme, Building Quantum Computers: A Practical Introduction. Cambridge University Press (2024).

Journal articles

  1. D. Bluvstein, A. Geim, …, S. Majidy, …, and M.D. Lukin, A fault-tolerant neutral-atom architecture for universal quantum computation. Nature 649, 39–46 (2026).
  2. S. Majidy, D. Hangleiter, and M. Gullans, Scalable and fault-tolerant preparation of encoded k-uniform states. Phys. Rev. A 112, 042409 (2025).
  3. S. Majidy, Noncommuting charges can remove non-stationary quantum many-body dynamics. Nat. Comm. 15, 8246 (2024).
  4. S. Majidy, W.F. Braasch Jr., A. Lasek, T. Upadhyaya, A. Kalev, and N. Yunger Halpern, Noncommuting conserved charges in quantum thermodynamics and beyond. Nat. Rev. Phys. 5, 689–698 (2023).
  5. S. Majidy, U. Agrawal, S. Gopalakrishnan, A. Potter, R. Vasseur, and N. Yunger Halpern, Critical phase and spin sharpening in SU(2)-symmetric monitored quantum circuits. Phys. Rev. B 108, 054307 (2023).
  6. S. Majidy, A unification of the coding theory and OAQEC perspective on hybrid codes. Int. J. Theor. Phys. 62.8: 177 (2023).
  7. S. Majidy, A. Lasek, D.A. Huse, and N. Yunger Halpern, Non-Abelian symmetry can increase entanglement entropy. Phys. Rev. B 107, 045102 (2023).
  8. N. Yunger Halpern and S. Majidy, How to build Hamiltonians that transport noncommuting charges in quantum thermodynamics. npj Quantum Information 8, 10 (2022).
  9. S. Majidy, J.J. Halliwell, and R. Laflamme, Detecting violations of macrorealism when the original Leggett-Garg inequalities are satisfied. Phys. Rev. A 103, 062212 (2021).
  10. S. Majidy, H. Katiyar, G. Anikeeva, J. Halliwell, and R. Laflamme, Exploration of an augmented set of Leggett-Garg inequalities using a noninvasive continuous-in-time velocity measurement. Phys. Rev. A 100, 042325 (2019).

Preprints

  1. J.M. Koh, A. Gong, …, M.D. Lukin, and S. Majidy, Entangling logical qubits without physical operations. arXiv:2601.20927 (2026).
  2. M. Bilokur, S. Gopalakrishnan, and S. Majidy, Thermodynamic limitations on fault-tolerant quantum computing. arXiv:2411.12805 (2024).
  3. S. Majidy, Addressing misconceptions in university physics: A review and experiences from quantum physics educators. arXiv:2405.20923 (2025).