Education and Academic Career
Since 01.10.2021	Professor (W2) Paderborn University, Germany
01/2018 - 30.09.2021	Junior Professor (W1) University of Paderborn, Germany
08/2014 - 12/2018	Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) Virginia Commonwealth University, U.S.A.
01/2013 - 08/2014	NSERC Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (1 of only 6 awardees Canada-wide in Natural Sciences) Computer Science Division, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.. Advisor: Umesh Vazirani.
01/2014 - 05/2014	Simons Postdoctoral Fellow Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.. Advisor: Umesh Vazirani.
08/2012 - 12/2012	Visiting Lecturer Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, U.S.A.
31.08.2012	Doctorate D. Phil., Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Canada. Supervisor: Prof. Richard Cleve
2006 - 2008	Degree programme M. Math, University of Waterloo, Canada
2000 - 2005	Degree programme B. Sc. Computer Science (Co-op), University of Waterloo, Canada
Awards und Fellowships
2020	Good Practices Digital Teaching Distinction, Paderborn University
2017	Undergraduate Research Opportunities Faculty Mentor Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
2017	Teaching Excellence Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
2016	Teaching Excellence Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
2012	Achievement Award for outstanding research, Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Canada
2010 - 2012	NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, University of Waterloo, Canada
Miscellaneous
Since 2016	Funding Reviewer: ANR France, DAAD Germany, FWF Austria, NSF USA, SC Armenia
Since 2015	Supervision of Researchers in Early Career Phases Doctorates Completed doctorates: 0, ongoing doctorates: 4 Distinguished students Avantika Agarwal, DAAD Wise Undergraduate Research Intern from IIT Delhi, 2022 Dorian Rudolph, Masters 2020, Paderborn University Outstanding Thesis Award Justin Yirka, Undergraduate Research Assistant (2015 – 2018): now PhD at UT Austin with Scott Aaronson
Scientific Engagement
Organisation of Scientific Events
Since 2021	Invited Talks 2023: (Keynote) Frontiers of near-term quantum computing workshop, Chalmers University, Sweden 2023: 18th Central European Quantum Information Processing workshop (CEQIP), Slovakia 2022: Workshop on The Multiple Facets of Quantum Proofs, STOC 2022, Italy 2022: Quantum & Lattices Reunion Workshop, Simons Institute for Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley, USA 2022: (Plenary) Matter and Light for Quantum Computing Conference, Germany 2022: Workshop on semidefinite and polynomial optimization, CWI, Netherlands 2022: Bad Honnef Physics School on Quantum Computing, Germany 2022: Workshop on Quantum Information, Saarland University, Germany 2021: German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, USA
Since 2015	Program Committee Member: QIP 2023, TQC 2023/2016/2015, ICALP 2022, ISAAC 2017, AQIS 2017
Since 2013	Outreach YouTube Channel on Quantum Computing. 33.326 views, 837 subscribers https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3WKNe_LK9JQkuinaLA_orQ
2022 - 2023	Chair, Local Organising Committee, 50th EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2023)
2021	Chair, Organising Committee, Dagstuhl Seminar 20311: Quantum Complexity: Theory and Application
2016 - 2018	Board of Trustees, Computational Complexity Conference (CCC)
Editorial Boards and Editorship
Since 2016	Founding Editor and Coordinating Editor (2021 - present), Quantum

Since 01.10.2021	Professor (W2) Paderborn University, Germany Education and Academic Career
Since 2021	Invited Talks 2023: (Keynote) Frontiers of near-term quantum computing workshop, Chalmers University, Sweden 2023: 18th Central European Quantum Information Processing workshop (CEQIP), Slovakia 2022: Workshop on The Multiple Facets of Quantum Proofs, STOC 2022, Italy 2022: Quantum & Lattices Reunion Workshop, Simons Institute for Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley, USA 2022: (Plenary) Matter and Light for Quantum Computing Conference, Germany 2022: Workshop on semidefinite and polynomial optimization, CWI, Netherlands 2022: Bad Honnef Physics School on Quantum Computing, Germany 2022: Workshop on Quantum Information, Saarland University, Germany 2021: German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, USA Organisation of Scientific Events
Since 2016	Founding Editor and Coordinating Editor (2021 - present), Quantum Editorial Boards and Editorship
Since 2016	Funding Reviewer: ANR France, DAAD Germany, FWF Austria, NSF USA, SC Armenia
Since 2015	Program Committee Member: QIP 2023, TQC 2023/2016/2015, ICALP 2022, ISAAC 2017, AQIS 2017 Organisation of Scientific Events
Since 2015	Supervision of Researchers in Early Career Phases Doctorates Completed doctorates: 0, ongoing doctorates: 4 Distinguished students Avantika Agarwal, DAAD Wise Undergraduate Research Intern from IIT Delhi, 2022 Dorian Rudolph, Masters 2020, Paderborn University Outstanding Thesis Award Justin Yirka, Undergraduate Research Assistant (2015 – 2018): now PhD at UT Austin with Scott Aaronson
Since 2013	Outreach YouTube Channel on Quantum Computing. 33.326 views, 837 subscribers https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3WKNe_LK9JQkuinaLA_orQ Organisation of Scientific Events
2022 - 2023	Chair, Local Organising Committee, 50th EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2023) Organisation of Scientific Events
01/2018 - 30.09.2021	Junior Professor (W1) University of Paderborn, Germany Education and Academic Career
2021	Chair, Organising Committee, Dagstuhl Seminar 20311: Quantum Complexity: Theory and Application Organisation of Scientific Events
2020	Good Practices Digital Teaching Distinction, Paderborn University Awards und Fellowships
08/2014 - 12/2018	Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) Virginia Commonwealth University, U.S.A. Education and Academic Career
2016 - 2018	Board of Trustees, Computational Complexity Conference (CCC) Organisation of Scientific Events
2017	Undergraduate Research Opportunities Faculty Mentor Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA Awards und Fellowships
2017	Teaching Excellence Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA Awards und Fellowships
2016	Teaching Excellence Award, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA Awards und Fellowships
01/2013 - 08/2014	NSERC Banting Postdoctoral Fellow (1 of only 6 awardees Canada-wide in Natural Sciences) Computer Science Division, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.. Advisor: Umesh Vazirani. Education and Academic Career
01/2014 - 05/2014	Simons Postdoctoral Fellow Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.. Advisor: Umesh Vazirani. Education and Academic Career
08/2012 - 12/2012	Visiting Lecturer Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, U.S.A. Education and Academic Career
31.08.2012	Doctorate D. Phil., Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Canada. Supervisor: Prof. Richard Cleve Education and Academic Career
2012	Achievement Award for outstanding research, Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Canada Awards und Fellowships
2010 - 2012	NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, University of Waterloo, Canada Awards und Fellowships
2006 - 2008	Degree programme M. Math, University of Waterloo, Canada Education and Academic Career
2000 - 2005	Degree programme B. Sc. Computer Science (Co-op), University of Waterloo, Canada Education and Academic Career

Publications

Latest Publications

Quantum 2-SAT on low dimensional systems is $\mathsf{QMA}_1$-complete: Direct embeddings and black-box simulation

D. Rudolph, S. Gharibian, D. Nagaj, in: 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS), n.d.

arXiv

Guest Column: The 7 faces of quantum NP

S. Gharibian, ACM SIGACT News 54 (2024) 54–91.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3639528.3639535

BQP, meet NP: Search-to-decision reductions and approximate counting

S. Gharibian, J. Kamminga, in: Proceedings of 51st EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP), 2024, pp. 1–19.

arXiv

Beating Grover search for low-energy estimation and state preparation

H. Buhrman, S. Gharibian, Z. Landau, F.L. Gall, N. Schuch, S. Tamaki, ArXiv:2407.03073 (2024).

arXiv

Quantum Polynomial Hierarchies: Karp-Lipton, error reduction, and lower bounds

A. Agarwal, S. Gharibian, V. Koppula, D. Rudolph, in: Proceedings of 49th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS), 2024, pp. 7–17.

DOI arXiv

Show all publications

Research Interests

Algorithms and complexity theory, quantum computation

Bio

Sevag obtained his Ph.D. in 2012 from the University of Waterloo in Canada under the supervision of Dr. Richard Cleve. He taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Fall 2012, and from 2013-2014 was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the group of Dr. Umesh Vazirani at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded Canada's top postdoctoral fellowship in 2013, the NSERC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, and was also a Simons Research Fellow at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley. From 2014 to 2018, he was an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Virginia Commonwealth University in the USA, and since 2018 is a faculty member in Computer Science at Paderborn University, Germany. He served from 2016 to 2018 as Secretary on the Board of Trustees of the Computational Complexity Conference (CCC), and is a Founding Editor of the open-access journal Quantum.