Dr. Michael Steiner
Principal Investigator
Dr. Steiner received his BSEE (1986) Drexel University, MSEE (1988) and Ph.D. (1994) from the University Of Maryland, College Park. His advanced degrees are in Information Theory. As part of his Ph.D. degree he resolved the long-standing strong simplex conjecture of information theory. As well, he developed the first constructive good code that can reach the capacity of Gaussian noise channels which are typical communication channels of interest. Prior to that, it was only known how to construct explicit good codes on a subclass of discrete channels. Dr. Steiner contributes in the areas of Quantum Information including the theory of entanglement and non-locality. He showed that only a finite amount of information was needed to account for non-local correlations predicted by Bell’s inequality and extended the theory of the robustness of entanglement. His current research is in the area of Foundations of Quantum Mechanics specifically on the measurement problem. During 2005-2007, Dr. Steiner was a member of Prof. Aharonov’s Center for Quantum Studies where he conducted fundamental quantum mechanics research. In 2006 Dr. Steiner was a founding member of Inspire Institute, and is currently on the board of directors. During 2008-2010 Dr. Steiner was a member of the Chapman University Institute for Quantum Studies in the area of fundamental quantum mechanics
Dr. Ronald Rendell
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Rendell received a Ph.D. in physics (1980) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked on theory in research projects in the areas of relaxations and transport in complex material systems, the physics of plasmonics in nanostructures and metamaterials, and quantum decoherence, entanglement and quantum correlations in the area of quantum information. In his Ph.D. work, Dr. Rendell originated the concept of the localized surface plasmon and identified the first experimental observation of these excitations. He later developed theory and modeling of plasmo-photonic nanostructured arrays and protein-based plasmonic nanostructures. Dr. Rendell developed theory and modeling on relaxation in complex systems (such as polymers, glasses, and electronic materials) which exhibit time-dependent phenomena related to many-body correlations in the materials, that has been successful in understanding a vast range of relaxation experiments. Dr. Rendell developed theory in the areas of quantum information for decoherence, entanglement and quantum correlations, including a paper on open systems entanglement dynamics that produced the first case of what is now called “entanglement sudden death”. His current research is in the area of Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, specifically on the measurement problem. During 2006-2007, Dr. Rendell was a member of Prof. Aharonov’s Center for Quantum Studies where he conducted fundamental quantum mechanics research. In 2006 Dr. Rendell was a founding member of Inspire Institute, and is currently on the board of directors.