Skip to main content
Search

Alicia Kollár

Assistant Professor

Fellow
Alicia Kollár portrait

Contact Information

UMD

Email:
akollar@umd.edu
Office:

PSC 2112 (Office)
University of Maryland
Atlantic Building 2207
College Park, MD 20742

Office Phone:
(301) 405-4058
Lab:
PSC B0156

Additional Info

CV:
Alicia%20Kollar_CV_2022_Aug.pdf

Recent Publications

Recent News

  • a figure of a particular mathematical graph that looks like a criss-crossed grid

    Graphs May Prove Key in Search for Holy Grail of Quantum Error Correction

    October 24, 2022

    In February 2019, JQI Fellow Alicia Kollár, who is also an assistant professor of physics at UMD, bumped into Adrian Chapman, then a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney, at a quantum information conference. Although the two came from very different scientific backgrounds, they quickly discovered that their research had a surprising commonality. They both shared an interest in graph theory, a field of math that deals with points and the connections between them. Their ensuing collaboration resulted in a new tool that aids in the search for new quantum error correction schemes—including the Holy Grail of self-correcting quantum error correction. They published their findings recently in the journal Physical Review X Quantum.

  • A man wearing glasses stands in front of green shrubbery.

    Recent Physics Grad Sees Many Roads Ahead

    September 13, 2022

    As Jeffrey Wack walked across the graduation stage in May 2022, he carried with him a lot of uncertainty about where to go next. His trepidation came from his voracious curiosity for a broad range of things, primarily within physics and math—the subjects of his two degrees—but also from his interests in teaching, outreach and music. The prospect of having to pick just one path forward felt confining to Wack. But that same curiosity served him extremely well during his time at the University of Maryland, and it left him with many opportunities for next steps.

  • Alicia Kollár wearing glasses and a blue and white plaid shirt in front of red and clear windows.

    JQI Fellow Kollár Bridges Abstract Math and Realities of the Lab

    March 30, 2022

    The research of JQI Fellow Alicia Kollár, who is also a Chesapeake Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, embodies the give and take between physics and mathematics. In her lab, she brings abstract theories to life and in turn collaborates on new theorems. She has forged a research program of manipulating light on a chip, coaxing the light into behaving as though it lives on the surface of a sphere, or a mathematical abstraction known as a hyperbolic surface. She also collaborates with mathematicians, furthering both the understanding of what these chips can do and their underlying mathematics. A direct collaboration with pure mathematicians is uncommon for a physicist, particularly an experimentalist. But Kollár is no stranger to mathematics.