Parallel and Distributed Fermionic Simulation via Dynamic Encoding
Williams de la Bastida, M., Coveney, P.V. (2026). "Parallel and Distributed Fermionic Simulation via Dynamic Encoding". arXiv:2609.31502.
CV
Glasgow, Scotland · michael.williams.20@ucl.ac.uk
Education
- PhD Chemistry
- “Resource Reduction for Hybrid Quantum-HPC Simulation of Chemistry”
- University College London, London, in progress (completion 2026)
- MRes Quantum Technologies (Distinction)
- “Embedded Quantum Algorithms for Chemical Structure”
- University College London, London, 2021
- MPhys Theoretical Physics (First Class)
- “Examining the Orthogonality Catastrophe with the Kernel Polynomial Method”
- University of St Andrews, 2019
- Airline Transport Pilot’s License
- Flight Training Europe, Jerez, Spain, 2013
- 93% average in 14 ATPL theory exams
- First attempt pass in Commercial Pilot’s License and Instrument Rating
- Jet Orientation Course with Multi-crew Co-ordination
Employment
- ProEd Et Al - Lecturer
- July 2023 - Present
- Introduction to Quantum Computing from Computer Science: 6 hour in-person course for university entrants.
- Physical Sciences and Programming: 3 day course covering study and careers in physical and information sciences for students in late secondary education.
- Introduction to Computer Science: 6 hour online course covering classical information theory, physical computing and computational science for students in secondary education.
- Microsoft - Automation Software Engineer
- September 2019 - September 2020, London
- Developed cloud automation tools for deployment and life-cycle management of telecoms virtual machines in Python and Rust.
- Implemented testing and data-validation models for cloud infrastructure.
- Provided installation engineers with CLI tools for headless debugging, resulting in reduced commissioning time.
- Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics - Research Intern
- Summer 2017
- Duties included: Develop an undergraduate teaching laboratory on the topic of interferometry.
- Supervisor: Dr. Michael Tröbs
- University of St. Andrews - Research Intern
- Spring 2017
- Duties included: Qualitative Research on misconceptions held by students regarding quantum mechanics.
- Supervisor: Dr. Antje Kohnle
Service
- Reviewer, Journal of Open Source Software (1 review in 2026)
- Quantum Computing, Computational Chemistry, Python, Rust, R
Conferences
Talks
- “Optimised Fermion-Qubit Encodings”, Scientific Computing in Rust 2026, Online, 9 July 2026 (video)
- “Optimised Fermion-Qubit Encodings for quantum simulation with reduced circuit depth”, QUANTUMatter 2026 (6th Quantum Matter International Conference & Expo), Barcelona, Spain, April 2026
Tutorials
- “Accelerated Quantum Supercomputing: A Hands-On Tutorial on Quantum-Classical Hybrid Workflows Executed on QPUs and GPUs”, SC26, Chicago, USA, 15 November 2026
Posters
- “Optimised Fermion-Qubit Encodings”, QCTiP 2026, Oxford, England (poster PDF)
- “Quantum Multicast Communication for the Quantum Internet”, Careers in Quantum 2022, Bristol, England, June 2022 (poster PDF)
Skills
- Research: Quantum algorithms, simulation of chemistry, resource reduction of quantum algorithms, education and dissemination
- Programming languages: Python, Rust, R
- Cloud technologies: Terraform, Ansible
- DevOps & version control: Git, Jujutsu, GitHub Actions
Publications
Quantum Computing and GPU-Accelerated Reaction-Barrier Calculations for aGPCR Autoproteolysis
Orlov, A., et al. "Quantum Computing and GPU-Accelerated Reaction-Barrier Calculations for aGPCR Autoproteolysis". In review.
Optimised fermion-qubit encodings for quantum simulation with reduced circuit depth
Williams de la Bastida, M., Bickley, T.M., Coveney, P.V. (2025). "Optimised fermion-qubit encodings for quantum simulation with reduced circuit depth". IOP Quantum Science and Technology. DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/ae9b40
Extending quantum computing through subspace, embedding and classical molecular dynamics techniques
Bickley, T.M., et al. (2025). "Extending quantum computing through subspace, embedding and classical molecular dynamics techniques". Digital Discovery, 4(12), 3427-3444. DOI: 10.1039/D5DD00225G
Scalable approach to quantum simulation via projection-based embedding
Ralli, A., Williams de la Bastida, M., Coveney, P.V. (2024). "Scalable approach to quantum simulation via projection-based embedding". Physical Review A, 109, 022418. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.109.022418