An interdisciplinary partnership for gravitational wave astronomy between QMUL's and Universidad Complutense de Madrid has been shortlisted for QMUL's Research and Innovation Award for Interdisciplinary Team.
Dr Hong Qi outside the LIGO Livingston Observatory
QMUL's LIGO Scientific Collaboration Group for gravitational wave astronomy led by Dr Hong Qi and the Quantum Information and Computation Group at Universidad Complutense de Madrid led by Prof Miguel A. Martin-Delgado, alongside PhD students Roberto Campos and Gabriel Escrig has been shortlisted for QMUL's Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation Award in 2024.
The collaboration has recently applied quantum computing to gravitational wave source characterisation data analysis, a global milestone that has great promise for future generations of gravitational-wave detectors. The pioneering work has the potential to revolutionise data analysis techniques in gravitational wave astronomy, and extend its impact in fields beyond academia, such as data science in finance and new drug discoveries.
The collaboration has broken disciplinary and institutional boundaries, showing the power of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary teamwork and research management, and is driving forward the next wave of world-class research.
Dr Qi would like to thank the School of Mathematical Sciences’ Finance Manager, Andrea Young, and the Director of Research, Dr Juan Valiente Kroon for their unmatched administrative support in the STFC Impact Accelerator grant that she received which contributed to the interdisciplinary collaboration. Thanks also go to Prof. Gabriela Gonzalez at Louisiana State University and the LIGO Livingston Observatory team for their hospitality in her visit in 2023 during this work, the London Mathematical Society, and Dr Juan Valiente Kroon and Prof Claudia Garetto who supported her application for the Emmy Noether Fellowship, which covered after school childcare and allowed her to focus on her work.