Steven Thomson

@physicssteve
3 Followers
211 Following
228 Posts

Research fellow in theoretical quantum condensed matter physics at Freie Universität Berlin (previously: PhD at University of St Andrews, postdocs at CEA Paris-Saclay, Ecole Polytechnique and Collège de France). He/him.

Occasional popular science writer, MCAA Editorial Board member and host of the insideQuantum #podcast (http://www.insidequantum.org).

Personal/academic website: http://www.steventhomson.co.uk

#quantum #physics #research #quantumtechnology #quantumcomputing #feminist #firstgen #writer

Websitehttp://www.steventhomson.co.uk
Podcasthttp://www.insidequantum.org
Bloghttp://www.brokensymmetryblog.co.uk
PronounsHe/him
Show threadSteven ThomsonNov 23, 2022

I just got an automatic response titled "Your Successful Application".

Unless my application was so good they decided to hire me immediately, I think they might want to re-think the title of that e-mail. 😂

Show threadSteven ThomsonNov 23, 2022
(First of what is likely to be very many attempts, let's be real here...)
Show threadSteven ThomsonNov 23, 2022

I did it. I pressed the button.

First ever application for a *permanent* academic job submitted...! 😬🤞

Show threadSteven ThomsonNov 23, 2022
Procrastinating from having to press the scary button by having a cup of coffee and second-guessing all of my life choices to this point.
Steven ThomsonNov 23, 2022
This is the scary part... 😱
Steven ThomsonNov 23, 2022
Show threadGiulio MattioliNov 23, 2022
That's the thing about migration perhaps: it often makes you a better, more balanced person, but it also makes you a pain and a riddle to most people in both the country of origin and your host country.
Steven ThomsonNov 23, 2022
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezNov 23, 2022

Thomas Lin (@7homaslin) is now posting on Mastodon! He's the founder and chief editor of Quanta Magazine, which is probably the world's best magazine for math and physics news.

In this toot he talks about how he traveled to Switzerland to report about Maryna Viazovska, the Ukrainian Fields medalist who proved that the E8 lattice is the densest possible way to pack spheres in 8 dimensions:

https://mathstodon.xyz/@7homaslin@newsie.social/109368283753056524

Show threadSteven ThomsonNov 22, 2022

In the end, in figuring out why this particular method (suggested in several papers...!) didn't work for me, I realised there's a much, much faster and more efficient way to solve this problem.

So, all's well that ends well. 🙂

Steven ThomsonNov 22, 2022
insideQuantumNov 22, 2022

Did you catch our latest episode yet?

Here's Dr Stefanie Czischek (@sczischek) telling us about the challenges of using neural networks to simulate quantum many-body systems.

Check out the full episode on http://insidequantum.org if you'd like to hear more. Also available on all good podcast apps!

#ScienceMastodon #insideQuantum #NeuralNetworks #MahcineLearning #AI #QuantumPhysics #Quantum #QuantumTechnologies

insideQuantum

Telling the human stories behind quantum technology

Steven ThomsonNov 22, 2022

Sometimes I post about great successes in getting code to run faster or more accurately.

Today I spent ~2 hours rewriting something to be very efficient and clever, and now it takes over 6 times longer to run.

You win some, you lose some. 🤷