Information Flow Adds Up

March 11, 2008

Mary Ann Travis
mtravis@tulane.edu

Information flow and quantum computation are concepts that will be discussed in a series of five talks by a renowned international scientist who is this year’s Tulane math department Clifford Lecturer.

In the past, computer scientists and mathematicians viewed computers as machines to which you’d give some data, and they’d churn on it and then spit out results. But with the Internet, computers aren’t so simple and stand-alone. Users on one computer now interact with machines all over the world, and information quickly flows from one machine to another, resulting in much more complex interactions.

Samson Abramsky, a theoretical computer scientist, is devising a new approach for understanding concepts of information flow and, in particular, quantum computation. Abramsky, a fellow of the Royal Society and holder of the Christopher Strachey Chair in Computing at the University of Oxford in England, is this year’s Clifford Lecturer.

Abramsky is giving a series of five talks (March 12–15) on the theme, “Information Flow in Physics, Geometry, Logic and Computation.” Thirteen other researchers — mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists and a noted economist — from the United States, Canada, France and Great Britain also will make presentations on the same theme. Most of the talks will be in room 1111 of Goldring/Woldenberg Hall II.

Abramsky’s approach “abstracts away from details and allows you to see straight through in a clear way how things are actually working,” says Mike Mislove, Tulane professor of mathematics and organizer of this year’s Clifford Lectures. Mislove also holds the Pendergraft Herbert Buchanan Professorship at Tulane.

Abramsky has developed “penetrating insight” into the notion of information flow that has relevance to quantum physics, mathematics in the area of topology, mathematical logic, computer science and economics, says Mislove. “The point is that computation is now being viewed at its essence as having to do with how information flows between machines.”

Abramsky’s presentation is actually quite beautiful, Mislove adds. He draws diagrams so “that you can really see how things interact.”

Mislove expects all the Clifford presenters to make an effort to reach out to one another. They are an “unusual mix of researchers from a broad range of areas,” he says. “We’re pleased at the reaction we’ve had that they’ve all been interested in coming.”

The lectures are open to all, including undergraduate and graduate students and faculty members from all disciplines. Mislove also hopes to attract attendees from among the physicists who came to the Tulane campus for the annual meeting of the American Physical Society this week.

The math department annually hosts the Clifford Lectures in honor of the late A.H. Clifford, a longtime member of the department. The series is funded by the A.H. Clifford Fund, with additional support this year from the Pendergraft Herbert Buchanan Professorship and the U.S. Office of Naval Research.