Atul Kumar received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Department of Chemistry, Banaras Hindu University, in 1999, and his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, in 2004, with a focus on theoretical chemistry. He completed his Ph.D. in 2010 at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras (IITM), specializing in Quantum Information and Computation. He joined IIT Jodhpur in March 2012, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemistry. His research group is interested in exploring the frontiers of quantum computing in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era, focusing on algorithm development, quantum entanglement, and strategies to manage noise and errors. A key aspect of our work involves leveraging quantum methods to tackle challenges in computational chemistry and open quantum dynamics.

Over the past three decades, quantum technology has garnered significant public and scientific attention, driven by sustained efforts from both academia and industry to bring quantum information and computation to the forefront of technological advancement. The paradigm shift from classical to quantum computing holds the promise of solving classically intractable problems more efficiently. However, the presence of quantum noise and limitations in circuit size—characteristic of the current noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era—pose substantial challenges to realizing the full potential of fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Our research group is actively engaged in addressing several key challenges in quantum information and computation within the constraints of the NISQ era. Our interests include computational chemistry in the realm of quantum computation, the classification and quantification of multiqubit entanglement and nonlocality, the development of efficient quantum algorithms for a range of applications, error mitigation strategies, and the study of open quantum systems.