Assistant Professor,
Centre for Quantum Science and Technology (CQST) and,
Centre for Security, Theory and Algorithmic Research (CSTAR)
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
Email: shchakra (at) iiit (dot) ac (dot) in , shantanav89 (at) gmail (dot) com
About: I am an Assistant Professor at IIIT Hyderabad, where I am affiliated with the Centre for Quantum Science and Technology (CQST) and the Centre for Security, Theory and Algorithmic Research (CSTAR). Prior to this, I was an F.R.S. - FNRS postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Quantum Information and Communication (QuIC), University libré de Bruxelles, working with Jérémie Roland. I obtained my PhD from the University of Lisbon in December 2017, where I was affiliated with the Physics of Information and QuantumTechnologies Group, supervised by Yasser Omar. During my PhD, I also spent some time at QuSoft, CWI Amsterdam, as a visiting researcher where I was hosted by Stacey Jeffery.
Research interests: My primary area of research interest is quantum computation and quantum algorithms. I have worked extensively on designing new quantum algorithms by quantum walks and improving existing ones. I have also worked on using quantum linear algebra concepts such as block-encoding and quantum singular value transformation to develop novel quantum algorithms. I am currently investigating the algorithmic utility of near/intermediate-term quantum computers, which have limited logical qubits and short circuit depths. You can see my publications here.
Openings: There are openings for fully funded PhD positions at CQST to work on quantum computation, quantum algorithms and complexity, jointly with me and my colleague Uttam Singh. The ideal candidate should have a Masters degree in Computer Science, Physics or Mathematics. Please email me ( and/or Uttam (uttam@iiit.ac.in) ) your CV and a motivation letter highlighting your research interests and background in the area. Additionally, please provide the contact information of at least two referees. Although not mandatory, publications in reputed journals (such as Physical Review Letters, Physical Review A, IEEE Transactions in Information Theory, Quantum, etc. ) or conference proceedings (such as STOC, FOCS, SODA, ICALP, STACS, MFCS, etc. ) are a bonus. Selected candidates will be called for interviews.
Internships: I'm not looking for short/long-term interns. Given the volume of such requests I receive, it will not be possible for me to reply to individual emails inquiring about internship positions. If specific positions open up, I will announce them on this page.
Fun fact: My Erdos Number is 3 through three different routes (Paul Erdős --> Leonard Schulman --> Andris Ambainis | Paul Erdős --> Mario Szegedy --> Jérémie Roland | Paul Erdős --> Mario Szegedy --> András Gilyén).
Recent updates:
New work: "Simulating quantum collision models with Hamiltonian simulations using early fault-tolerant quantum computers" has been published in Physical Review A. Here is the arXiv link. This is joint work with Kushagra Garg, Zeeshan Ahmed, and Subhadip Mitra, all from IIIT Hyderabad.
For the second year in a row, I have been awarded an unrestricted research grant from Fujitsu Ltd., Japan, in support of my work in 2025.
New work: "Fast computational deep thermalization" is out on arXiv. This is joint work with Soonwon Choi (MIT), Soumik Ghosh (University of Chicago), and Tudor Giurgică-Tiron (University of Maryland).
New work: "Unstructured Adiabatic Quantum Optimization: Optimality with Limitations" has been published in Quantum! Here is the link to the arXiv preprint. This is joint work with Leonardo Novo from INL, Braga, Arthur Braida, Joseph Cunningham, Jérémie Roland from QuIC, ULB, Brussels, and Rutvij Menavlikar, Alapan Chaudhuri, who are dual degree students at IIIT.
I am part of the Program Committee of the 25th Asian Quantum Information Science conference (AQIS 25). Please consider submitting your work there.
New work: "Quantum singular value transformation without block encodings: Near-optimal complexity with minimal ancilla" is out on arXiv. This is joint work with Soumyabrata Hazra (IIIT Hyderabad), Tongyang Li (Peking University), Changpeng Shao (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Xinzhao Wang (Peking University), and Yuxin Zhang (Chinese Academy of Sciences).
New work: "Sample Complexity of Black Box Work Extraction" is out on arXiv. This is joint work with my colleagues Uttam Singh, Siddhartha Das, and our PhD students Soumyabrata Hazra and Arnab Ghorui.
Fully funded PhD positions are currently open! My colleague Uttam Singh and I are looking for bright PhD students to work on quantum computation, algorithms and complexity at CQST, IIIT Hyderabad. For more details, please look at "Openings" and the poster at this link.
My work, "Implementing any Linear Combination of Unitaries on Intermediate-term Quantum Computers" has been published in Quantum. Here is the arXiv link.
I received an unrestricted research grant from Fujitsu Ltd. Japan, for 2024.
I am teaching Quantum Algorithms (CS409.1) in the Spring Semester 2024. See here for details.
I am teaching Automata Theory (CS302.1) in the Monsoon Semester 2023. See here for details.
Aditya Morolia, a dual degree student (B. Tech in CS and MS in Computational Natural Sciences), has successfully defended his MS thesis. He will move to the Centre for Quantum Technologies, NUS. Congratulations Aditya!
Joint work with Aditya Morolia (IIIT Hyderabad) and Anurudh Peduri (IIIT Hyderabad & Ruhr University Bochum) , titled "Quantum Regularized Least Squares" , has been published in Quantum. Aditya is an MS (R) student of mine, while Anurudh was a Research Associate in my group, and has recently moved to RUB for a PhD.
With Siddhartha Das, I will teach Introduction to Quantum Information and Quantum Computation (CS312.9) in the Spring Semester of 2023.
Joint work with Simon Apers (IRIF, Paris), Leonardo Novo (INL, Braga) and Jérémie Roland (QuIC, ULB, Brussels) titled "Quadratic speedup for spatial search by continuous-time quantum walk" has been published in Physical Review Letters! Here is the arXiv link. It was also presented as a talk at TQC 2022.
Joint work with Amrita Mandal, Rohit Sarma Sarkar and Bibhas Adhikari (IIT Kharagpur) titled "Limit theorems and localization of three-state quantum walks on a line defined by generalized Grover coins" has been published in Physical Review A. Here is the arXiv link.
I was recently awarded the Startup Research Grant (SRG) from SERB-DST, Govt of India!
I am teaching Automata Theory (CS 302.1) in the Monsoon Semester of 2022. See here for details.
I was recently featured in the IIIT blog.
I will be teaching Quantum Algorithms (CS409.1) in the Spring Semester of 2022. See here for details.
Joint work with Yosi Atia (of UC Berkeley) titled "Improved upper bounds for the hitting times of quantum walks" has been published in Physical Review A.
I will be teaching Automata Theory (CS 302.1) in the Monsoon Semester of 2021. See here for details.
I am part of the organizing committee of the National Quantum Science and Technology Symposium to be held online from 26th July to the 3rd August 2021.
A new Centre for Quantum Science and Technology has been launched at IIIT Hyderabad.
Joined IIIT Hyderabad as Assistant Professor from June 2021!